Insect Lore Butterfly Garden with Redemption Caterpillar Voucher

Key Features

• Raise and release your very own butterflies! Claim your Cup of Caterpillars with Food using the enclosed VOUCHER, for a small fee. A feeding pipette and colourful instruction guide containing all you need to know are also included.
• Insect Lore’s Butterfly Garden will bring a sense of wonder and excitement to children and adults alike. The Butterfly Garden is STEM.org Authenticated and can help cultivate an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics).
• Please allow between 3 and 5 weeks for the cycle to complete, plan around your holidays, school terms etc. (Cycle varies throughout the year) Caterpillars are available from March to mid-September only, however you can pre-order out of season.
• The Butterfly Garden Habitat at 30cm tall is reusable, cylindrical, and features super clear mesh, perfect for up-close butterfly viewing and folds flat for easy storage. Refill Caterpillars can be purchased separately, from March to mid-September.
• Upon voucher redemption, Insect Lore will dispatch on your requested date, directly to the address provided. Your Cup of Caterpillars and Food will arrive with a Chrysalis Station and sachet of sugar.

About This Product

Brand Name Insect Lore Age Range Description Ages 4+ Educational Objective Exploratory Skill or Concept Development Skill Language English, English Subject Learning_and_Exploration, Outdoor, Outdoor Games, Science, Environmental Science Kits, sarah, Set Name Educational Butterfly Garden Kit Maximum Age Recommendation 144.0 UPC 735569010107 Minimum Age Recommendation 48.0 Global Trade Identification Number 00349361023748, 00735569010107 Model Number 1010 Manufacturer Part Number 1010 Manufacturer Insect Lore Item Type Name Educational Kit Unit Count 1 Volume Manufacturer Warranty Description 1 Year Warranty Included Components Habitat, Voucher, Instructions, Pipette Best Sellers Rank 21 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games) 1 in Educational Science Kits ASIN B00000ISC5 Customer Reviews 4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars (23,199) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when('A', 'ready').execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( 'acrLink-click-metrics', 'click', { "allowLinkDefault": true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count("acrLinkClickCount", (ue.count("acrLinkClickCount") || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when('A', 'cf').execute(function(A) { A.declarative('acrStarsLink-click-metrics', 'click', { "allowLinkDefault" : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count("acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount", (ue.count("acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount") || 0) + 1); } }); }); 4.6 out of 5 stars

Product Details

Brand

Insect Lore

Model

1010

Size

11.5 Inch

Dimensions

25.4 x 25.4 x 30.5 centimetres

Weight

0.06 Pounds

Material

Fabric

Manufacturer

Insect Lore

ASIN

B00000ISC5

Customer Reviews Summary

I purchased this item with trepidation after reading the reviews that the code would not work in the UK and that caterpillars could not be redeemed with a USA code if you were sent the wrong box.My daughter saved her pocket money for this after doing it at school, so we went ahead and purchased it. It arrived this morning. The leaflet inside has a special code that you enter either by post (with £2.99 to cover the shipping of the caterpillar larvae) or you can also enter it online and pay via paypal, which I did. It was VERY quick and easy, I can only assume that some people have been very unfortunate and have received USA stock by mistake, or that the newer stock is all UK butterfly garden boxes.Anyway, I have paid the fee and eagerly await the caterpillars being despatched. You can only pick from a limited list of delivery dates so be prepared to wait at least a week or more for your caterpillars to arrive. ALSO - if you want to do this, eggs are ONLY AVAILABLE in the spring and summer months so be sure you order this item at the right time otherwise it will be useless until the next butterfly season!The box only contains the butterfly net/house, a feeding pipette, and instruction booklet, as well as your unique code to redeem the caterpillars.THIS IS MADE ABUNDANTLY CLEAR! I cannot understand the bad reviews from those intellectually challenged people who seem to think LIVE animals can be kept indefinitely on a shelf until they are sold. Caterpillars life cycle takes about 5 weeks so they would be dead and gone before the kits were sold! Of course they charge a handling fee to get you fresh larvae sent out. If people cant comprehend this basic fact, maybe they don't have the requisite intelligence to be explaining life cycles to a child. Don't be disappointed to find NO LIVE INSECTS in your kit! Sheeeesh! (eye roll)....I will update this reviews when the larvae arrive!27/07/13 - caterpillars arrived today. They are about 1cm long, black and hairy, and are in a small clear plastic cup with a lid and a cardboard sleeve that can be rotated around the cup to view the caterpillars. Already there are some silk like threads being spun at the bottom of the cup. Four of the caterpillars are very active and can clearly be seen crawling about and eating the thick jelly stuff at the bottom of the cup. The fifth caterpillar is alive but quite inactive and has not moved much. Some have even ventured to the underside of the cup lid.31/07/13 - all five caterpillars are still alive, though the slow/inert one is still lying at the bottom of the cup not having moved much. They have more than trebled in size since they arrived, the largest one is now about 2.5 - 3cm long. The inside of the cup looks a bit gross now with all the caterpillar waste product (frass) and shed skins. since last night alone they are noticeably fatter; it's amazing just how fast they grow, there can be a marked difference between day and night. In this warmer weather the process is, according to the booklet, much faster. I'm expecting the chrysalis's to start forming over the next few days. At this point I'm hoping for 5 successful butterflies!02/08/13 - 4 of the caterpillars are now hanging from the lid of the cup, one seems to be a bit more ahead of the others as it has already formed somewhat of a thick cocoon over itself, the others just look like they are hanging there. The fifth caterpillar is making its way to the top of the cup. I hope they all form cocoons at the same time as I don't know what to do if some have not and some have, as the instructions say you should not open the lid until all are hanging from the top (you can introduce bacteria etc into their environment otherwise). Exciting!05/08/13 - All five caterpillars made it into the cocoon stage, but one was hanging not from the lid but from another cocoon. We opened the lid as per instructions and cleaned away the silk strands and debris (this apparently can cause the butterflies to become entangled and have deformed wings if you don't do this). The cocoon that was hanging from another cocoon, we have detached and laid on a paper towel at the bottom of the enclosure. The instructions say this is okay and it should still hatch out. We are now to wait for the cocoons to turn a very dark colour, and the butterflies are suppose to hatch the same day! This stage was quite yucky if I'm honest and may gross out a sensitive child, as there were 'bits' of old caterpillar skin and what looks like blood (its just 'meconium' according the booklet!). We now wait expectantly for our butterflies!It is interesting to note that the cocoons were shaking quite violently on their own as we were doing this, apparently this is a defence mechanism! Very strange to see.12/08/13 - First butterfly hatched out yesterday morning. We missed the actual event but it was sitting at the bottom of the enclosure. Have put fresh cut oranges and peaches in the net, as well as some fresh flowers sprayed with 'nectar' (sugar water) as per instructions. The second butterfly hatched this afternoon, and a third looks like it is about to emerge. We have taken lots of pictures. Two down, three to go!13/08/13 - Two hatched out yesterday afternoon after writing my update. We actually caught the second one on video emerging from its cocoon - you have to be fast because once it starts, it's out in about 5 seconds, it is not the slow process you might imagine! We were very lucky to catch it. A fair amount of red 'blood' drips from their back ends once emerged, so put your habitat on some newspaper.This morning we released all four butterflies as the fifth one was not hatched yet. We got some lovely pictures - they are happy to sit on your fingers etc as you place them on the plants. My daughter was a bit teary for a while but after explaining that her new friends needed to be free to see the world etc and that they would come back and visit her if they could, she felt a bit better. The fifth butterfly hatched in the last two hours, so he will be released this afternoon, as I feel they should not be kept in the net any longer then necessary.In summary this has been an amazing experience for both adult and child. The whole process from receiving larvae to releasing the butterflies took 17 days. I highly recommend this item, we are already thinking about doing it again next summer!