Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden
by Insect Lore
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List Price: Our Price: $9.59 You Save: $15.40 (62%) Availability: Usually ships in 3-4 business days Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden
Customer Review: The most sickly butterflies I've ever seen!
Summary: 2 Stars
We have bought "butterfly kits" before. I would recommend butterfly kits to everyone, just not this company's. By the time the caterpillars arrived, they had already formed their cocoons. So, my kids were unable to watch them as caterpillars. Then, because they had been jostled around in their cocoon stage, one of them fell off the ceiling. The box said to put the fallen cocoons gently on the floor of the box, but I would not recommend this; just quietly throw them away. Instead of becoming a butterfly, we got to watch that chrysalid slowly darken and become scarier looking. Out of the remaining 4 chrysalids, 1 butterly was unable to open and spread its wings, so it eventually died of starvation or something, and another one never flew away, but staying in the box and died. We only had two healthy butterflies fly away. Needless to say we learned very little about metamorphosis, and a lot about DEATH and DYING!
Get a kit from a different company and save yourself the grief!
Customer Review: Great Product - this is my second one
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this 3 or 4 years ago for my son. Sent away for the caterpillars and had two delighted kids watching the whole process happen. Each summer this has also been our lightening bug container each night in June and July. We've caught local caterpillars and had varying degrees of success having them turn to butterflies or moths.
My son's preschool and kindergarten class have also borrowed it for a month at a time when they were doing butterfly projects.
So it wore out. Hence we are happily buying another one and will start over with sending away for caterpillars this spring and I'm sure it will house many more creepy crawlies to come.
It is easy to store (folds down and velcro holds together). The zipper is easy to use (both my son and daughter could manage it at 3 1/2. It is way more humane than the plastic bug holders with a magnifying glass because air circulates and temperature is less likely to get hot.
We highly recommend.
Customer Review: Great product
Summary: 4 Stars
I got the butterfly garden for my five-year-old daughter and immediately mailed in my coupon for the caterpillars. I received them within a few days! Loved the fast service!
The five caterpillars were well and carefully packaged and started forming cocoons on the lid of their jar in less than a week. The instructions were a little hazy on how to get the critters out of the jar and pinned inside the butterfly garden, but my wife was able to figure it out. In a few days, we had five butterflies flitting around inside the netting and happily enjoying drinks of sugar water (the instructions with the garden tell you how to do this).
We probably could have held on to them for a couple of weeks, but my little girl insisted they should be let free and so we released them in our backyard after a few days (though a couple didn't seem to want to go!). Overall, the experience was a lot of fun and I'll very likely order more caterpillars in the spring so we can do it again.
Customer Review: "Mom, can we get some more caterpillars, please?"
Summary: 5 Stars
My son received the butterfly garden as a birthday gift. We were going out of town, so asked to have the caterpillars delivered at a later date. They came on the exact date requested! The caterpillars were very small the first day, but grew so quickly that I wondered if we could actually watch them grow before our eyes (it certainly seemed that way)! It took only one week for the chrysalides to form, and only one more week for the butterflies to hatch. There is no feeding required for the caterpillars (they arrive in a container with their entire food supply)--all the kids need to do is watch them! My son and daughter both woke up each morning and would come running to tell me how big the caterpillars were. Then they watched them form into chrysalides, and still watched them each day until they hatched. The day we released the butterflies, my son looked at me and said "I sure am going to miss my beautiful butterflies!...Mom, can we get some more?"Customer Review: All three girls loved it!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have three kids and they all loved this gift. We paid the $3 (I believe) to get the butterflies. They arrived as promised a week or two later. We followed the slightly confusing directions and 4 out of the five larve turned into butterflies. It was kind of chilly so we waited to release them after a week when the weather warmed up. One of the butterlies died after about five days but the other three we released. Note- after they 'hatch', there is what appears to be blood on the netting of the habitat. My daughters and I were concerened that somehow they were hurt, but this is not the case. We looked it up and it is just part of the natural process and I believe is just extra coloring from wing developement. Make sure you explain that this could happen ahead of time just so kiddos don't get scared that something is wrong. We are keeping the habitat and saving it to order more butterflies in a couple of months. I highly recommend this toy!