Insect Lore Butterfly Garden Kit Guide: Which One Should You Choose?

Can't decide which Butterfly Garden habitat is the right choice for you? No problem! We've got the perfect guide to help you find the perfect experience for your life cycle adventure. It will depend on three major factors: how and when you want to time out the project, the size of the group involved, and finally, how large you'd like your butterfly habitat to be! No matter what the habitat, our Butterfly Kits are the perfect choice for your life cycle lesson! 

Choosing Your Timing: Live Caterpillars vs. Voucher

Timing is extremely important when planning your butterfly life cycle project! After all, you'll want to be prepared once your caterpillar friends arrive at your door. That's why Insect Lore provides butterfly habitats shipped with live caterpillars, along with Butterfly Habitats with Vouchers to redeem caterpillars later.

How exactly does this work? It's simple! If you ship your butterfly garden with live, your caterpillars will arrive with the kit. If you order a kit with voucher, your habitat will arrive with a voucher that can be redeemed for live caterpillars at a later date. Butterfly Kits with Vouchers are the perfect choice for anyone wishing to give a gift to a budding entomologist, or even someone with a busy schedule who isn't ready to raise live caterpillars right away. The voucher option also is better for avoiding shipping in temperatures below 50°F or above 90°F.

Choosing Your Kit Size: How Many Caterpillars Do You Need

Now it's time to determine what the size of your habitat will be, and how many people will be participating in the project! Insect Lore's award-winning Butterfly Garden arrives by default with one cup of five baby caterpillars. Each Cup of Caterpillars arrives with all the food they need to grow up to be adult Painted Lady Butterflies. For those who want an enhanced learning experience, the Butterfly Garden Early Learning Edition habitat is a tent-shaped design with a clear viewing panel that offers an unforgettable observational experience, along with tuck-away learning panels depicting the incredible stages of metamorphosis. A Butterfly Garden with Two Cups of Caterpillars kit is also available for budding entomologists and/or larger households.

Seeking a bigger butterfly garden experience to share with your students? Insect Lore has several options for teachers and educators eager to take this experience into the classroom. Our Butterfly Pavilion School Kit arrives with 33 Live Caterpillars that are each placed in their own individual cup, and a large 24-inch tall Butterfly Pavilion Habitat that is big enough to provide a temporary home for all the butterflies. For educators who would prefer to stick to five caterpillars per cup, an Easy 25 School Kit is provided for quick and simple setup, arriving with 25 caterpillars total! 

Compare Insect Lore Butterfly Kits

Still deciding? This handy table helps to break down all of our current live-caterpillar kits by size, price, type of habitat, and best use cases! 

What's Inside Every Kit?

No matter what type, every Insect Lore Butterfly Kit contains everything you need for an expansive and educational STEM project. 

• Your preferred number of caterpillars with all the food they need to grow into beautiful adult Painted Lady butterflies OR a voucher to redeem for live insects at a later date 
• Pop-up, reusable mesh habitat
• Chrys-A-Lid™ Holding Log to keep your precious chrysalides upright
• Sugar Packets and Feeding Dropper for feeding your adult butterflies
• Butterfly Activity Journals for fun additional learning lessons
• Instruction Guide for every step of the adventure

No matter which kit you choose, Insect Lore has you covered with all the handy accessories you need!

Find Your Perfect Butterfly Kit with Insect Lore

Every Insect Lore Butterfly Growing Kit is the perfect project to introduce into your classroom, igniting curiosity, building knowledge and nurturing connection with the natural world. With every caterpillar to butterfly life cycle observed, you are gifting children with the foundational building blocks of a lifelong STEM education! For a larger experience with more caterpillars, visit our Classroom Kits page. No matter what the habitat, it's the ultimate educational resource!