I bought a Butterfly Garden last fall and have been waiting all winter and spring for the weather to warm up enough to send away for our caterpillars. It has finally warmed up enough, so I mailed off the certificate. In just a few days our butterfly larvae arrived! Ryan was very excited, and we all watched the caterpillars crawl around inside their sterile plastic container for quite some time.
We checked on them every day, and then one day about five days later I was blown away by how big they had grown! It seemed like they tripled in size overnight. Within another day they began to crawl to the top and hang upside down in preparation to become chrysalids.
I have never actually seen this process happen, so I was very excited when I saw the first caterpillar begin to transform. I called the children over and we watched him transform before our eyes from a caterpillar into a chrysalis in about two minutes! It happened so fast I couldn't tell what was happening, so I looked it up on the internet and learned they shed their skin. Then next one began his process about 30 minutes later, and this time we saw him lose his skin.
We had one little caterpillar who lagged behind the others by about 36 hours, but eventually he made his chrysalis as well. Every once in a while they shake and squirm a bit, a defensive move to ward off predators. They were doing a lot of this when the last caterpillar was crawling around trying to eat and make up his mind where to hang and start his chyrsalis.
Once they were all in chyrsalids, we were able to open the container and move them into the butterfly garden.
It's been about five days, and we're now keeping a close eye on them for the next several days. The information sheet said it takes about seven to 10 days before they emerge. So any day now we hope to see the birth of our butterflies! Stay tuned...
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