Hi, My MIL bought my daughter one of those butterfly kits for watching the caterpillars change. Today our first butterfly started to emerge as we were watching. It was very exciting! After we watched for about 20 minutes, we needed to go out and do some errands. When we returned home, it looked like it was in about the same place it had been when we left (about half way out of the chrysallis) Now it is not moving at all. Has anyone done this at home before? Do they stop and "rest" for a while or is this thing a goner and I'm going to have two upset little girls?!
The first one did not make it, but today the second one came out and has flown around a little bit. A third looks like it tried to come out but is just hanging there, so probably another "goner". I hope the last two make it so we can at least have three! The girls have already chosen names for all of them and we planted a garden of flowers that attract butterflies in our yard to release them into. It's a fun experience for the kids, but a little disappointing when they don't make it.
Yes, I have done this little butterfly garden at home - boy all I remember is it was a long process. I believe the butterfly will be fine. I can't remember if they all live or not. I just remember that there were several butterflies. Once they are all out of their chrysallis we let them go.
A goner? LOL. I'm gonna guess it's taking a rest. Let us know.
I know you asked this yesterday so you probably have your answer by now. But one thing I know that is a big no-no is helping them out. Evidently not going through that struggle can impair their flying ability. Good luck and have fun!
you should have like 5 of them right? They take a bit to get out but if they stop moving completely i would say goner.
Let's hope the rest make it...
We did it last year...so fun! We released them in our veggie garden. Here we are a year later and occasionally we will see a big yellow monarch butterfly float through the garden. My four year old gets so excited and really believes it is one of our released butterflies. I really don't think so because their lifespan is quite short...but I appease him and say probably because our garden is its home.
Have fun with the butterflies...we did have about 2 that never turned into butterflies. My kids did ok with that fact. It is a good lesson regarding nature and that the strong survive...they have to outwit the birds and bigger bugs.
I think we might purchase butterflies again...it really was a fun science/nature lesson.
I want to get one of those for my grandkids, I was wondering what the end result would be. I'll be watching for other responses from those that have tried it. It would kinda suck to just have dead butterflies.
We used to incubate baby chicks and it was so fun to watch them hatch, but every now and then you would get some bad ones. But it's still a good nature lesson for the kiddo's.
we just did ours again, sooo cool. 4 of the 5 made it. the 5th was pretty much as you describe. we placed it in the garden to "heal" overnight ;) shhhh.... in the morning it had "flown away"........ by the way, you can use the house to hatch praying mantises (mantids?) as well. you can get the egg sacs on ebay, at some garden/hardware stores (we get ours at ace) or i think on the website the butterflies came from. its very cool, and they eat lots of mosquitos too . have fun,,,,,
We had 6 and 5 made it out! It did take almost 2 days for the 5 to come out though. 2 were really quick, the rest of course, were slower.
