A Butterfly Project for Children of All Ages

A Butterfly Raise and Release Kit is the Perfect Holiday Activity

Jan 26, 2009

This fun holiday project offers a fascinating educational experience for kids as they follow the butterfly's life cycle until it emerges, then release it into the wild.

Raising butterflies at home and releasing them in the garden or park is a fascinating educational experience for the kids which will provide weeks of interest in the school holidays. You can find caterpillars around the garden for a DIY project. But there are also a number of inexpensive, easy to use butterfly rearing kits available through the internet which make raising your own butterflies a simple no-mess holiday activity and a sure fire winner for children of all ages.

Contents of a Butterfly Raise and Release Kit

Getting Started

Erect the net or box, with the caterpillar container inside and stand or hang it in a warm room, out of direct sunlight. Anywhere with a fairly constant temperature (ideally 20-25 C) will do but don’t put them on a sunny windowsill or near a working radiator.

The Caterpillars

The caterpillars will grow very quickly, shedding their skins several times as they grow. The cast-off skins, their droppings and the white silk mesh the caterpillars spin will make the container look a bit of a mess, but don’t try to clean it up or disturb them.

The Chrysalises or Pupae

After 7 -14 days, the caterpillars will climb to the top of the container and hang from the lid in a “J”shape to begin a fascinating transformation. In only a few hours, they’ll completely change their shape and colour, ending as chrysalises suspended neatly from the paper disc under the lid of the container.

Two or three days after the chrysalises have formed, carefully remove the pupae, still attached to the paper disc, and hang the disc in the emerging box as explained in the instructions. They’ll probably cause the kids some amusement by wriggling and twitching when you move them but don’t worry, this is their defense against predators.

Seven to ten days after they formed, the chrysalids change colour, and if you look carefully you’ll be able to see the outline of the butterfly’s body and the colour of its wings through the skin of the chrysalis. This shows that the butterfly will emerge within 24 hours. If there’s no butterfly by bedtime, you’ll have no difficulty in getting the kids out of bed early the following day!

The Butterflies Emerge

Next comes the magic moment which the children will watch spellbound. After 15 or 20 minutes furious wriggling, the butterflies will crawl out of the chrysalids and pump up their wings to appear in all their newfound beauty. They must then hang quite still for an hour or so until their wings have hardened enough to fly. Be careful not to disturb them at this stage as the wings are very soft and easily damaged.

Once the butterflies have emerged you should provide them with food. You can use a solution of cane sugar water as described in the instructions, but flowers are better if you have enough to cut some freshly each day from your garden. Buddleia is ideal but it’s worth trying other popular butterfly flowers to see which they’ll feed from.

Releasing the Butterflies

You can safely keep the butterflies in the box for two or three days to allow the children to study them and watch them feed. Then choose a warm dry period without too much wind to take them out and set them free, ideally in your butterfly friendly garden.

The copyright of the article A Butterfly Project for Children of All Ages in Wildlife Conservation is owned by Tony Allen. Permission to republish A Butterfly Project for Children of All Ages in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.