Raising Painted Lady Butterflies

One of the most rewarding experiments that the boys and I did this spring was raising Painted Lady Butterflies. We got a kit from Toys R Us, sent in our coupon for our caterpillars and waited. A few weeks later a small jar with five tiny caterpillars arrived in our mailbox. All the food they needed was in this little jar. We watched as the caterpillars grew tremendously each day. They turned from green to a hairy black and got bigger and bigger and bigger. Eventually, they crawled to the top of the jar and hung upside down from the lid. As we watched, they began to harden and turn grey. We transferred the chrysalis's to the mess habitat and waited. After about two weeks week got to watch a butterfly emerge. It was amazing! All five made it and we began feeding them sugar water.
My boys loved them and decided they didn't want to release them. Well, these little critters started mating! The boys watched that too. A little privacy please! They'd say, "Mom, the butterflies are mating again." The females started laying eggs all over the habitat. We decided we had better find out what these guys eat as we would probably have babies soon. After some research, we found out they ate milk thistle and mallow. We knew we had that in the area with the help of some pictures. Off we went in search of food for our pending babies. Sure enough, one morning we awoke to our kitchen counter being covered in tiny black worms. Breakfast anyone? With the use of a credit card, I very carefully, scooped up as many of the babies as I could and put them in a container with some of the leaves we collected.
We had to go on several hunts over the next few weeks to supply our new caterpillars with enough food. I was a caterpillar mommy now, checking on them often. They were eating and growing so fast. One thing we noticed was the amount of poop these little guys can produce. Tons of it!!! Every couple of days we had to clean out the container. Well, we ended up with 21 chrysalis's! Sixteen of them hatched. I made sure the boys released them within a day. No more mating for me! This was a lot of effort on my part to make sure they had enough food. I think we cleaned out the neighborhood of thistle and mallow. This new batch was on its own! I hope this experience is something the boys will never forget. Even Levi would sit with the habitat in front of him admiring the butterflies. God is an amazing God. I'm glad we got to join Him in appreciating part of His creation.