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Caterpillars!


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Hi Everyone,

 

Its been a long time since i visited but i need help!!! A few years ago at nursery we bought a net butterfly house and it came with 5 caterpillars which the children observed as they turned into butterflies. Does anyone haveany idea where i can get these from?

 

Thank you inadvance for any help :D

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Hi Rapunzel,

 

I have just bought mine from Kent County Council Supplies. You are supposed to receive 5 caterpillars through the post :o approximately five days from sending off the certificate. I am going to send mine during the Easter hols. Can't wait as we haven't had a butterfly garden before. A parent brought in a chrysallis last year and we studied it for about 6 weeks before we realised it was dead!!!! xD

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we have had ors for three weeks in the unit and they have all gone into coccoons, :D we are hoping for butterflies before we break up for easter.

we have about 25.

cant remember where we ordered them from but could post on monday.

last year we kept the caterpillars on a shelf with a strong light above and a lot of them died, :o so this year we made sure there was no strong light above them.

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I got mine from the education show, www.warwickinsect.co.uk

3 of them have today gone to the top of the pot so they may be starting to change. They really are great, I might even get some for the children! :D

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Please can I ask that you get your caterpillars (and ladybirds if you breed them too) from a UK breeding source (if you are in the UK). A well known company recently mentioned tend to get their supplies from Belgium, or at least they used to, so please check on the source before purchase.

 

I use justgreen or greengardener, although Rea's place warwickinsects seem well priced.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

Thanks for this post, I ordered some last week and we are all looking forward to seeing how it goes, we havent done anything like this before!

 

THe children are excited too as we are doing a gardening project at the minute.

 

So thanks

 

Nicola

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I was just abot to ask about these kits when I found your conversation, have ordered them now and can't wait to share them with the children. Thanks for the help!

Alex

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

 

i ordered my butterfly garden and caterpillars from the insect lore link here, well the caterpillars have arfrived but no sign of butterfly garden yet, should i be worried, do they normally dispatch seperatly?

 

Dawn

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got mine from green gardener...they were cheaper by £1.00 and no P&P , difference being you send certificate for caterpillars once arrived, but it arrived in 48 hrs.

 

So cannot really help with question, did you get all the info with the caterpillars on care etc mine came with the butterfly garden.....if not the green gardener site has really clear pictures and instructions.

 

Inge

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got mine from green gardener...they were cheaper by £1.00 and no P&P , difference being you send certificate for caterpillars once arrived, but it arrived in 48 hrs.

 

So cannot really help with question, did you get all the info with the caterpillars on care etc mine came with the butterfly garden.....if not the green gardener site has really clear pictures and instructions.

 

Inge

 

 

HI inge,

 

Yes we got info to care for them etc, but no butterfly garden... will have to see if it arrives today

 

Dawn

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oh er!, we recived our pupa's last friday, took them in this monday and started our project. The information pack said they should hatch in about ten days. This morning they had hatched! not quite the ten days as expected, released them this morning on a flower bed with the children. This was a quick turn around and it is a shame the monday children havn't had a chance to see them, took lots of photos for them though, good job the project was completed and all children had observed the pupa's during the week! Now if you had a short time span to watch these change i bet they would have taken longer!!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi

 

Sorry to take this off to a tangent a little, but I bought some caterpillars from Insectlore, they were the painted lady variety.

 

Well we have butterfly's now which appear to be bleeding? I know they arent as this is a bright red substance and my research tells me that this sint what a butterflys blood would look like.

 

The netting is beginning to get red round the sides when the butterfly's rub against it.

 

I am looking for a way to explain this to my children so does anyone have any answers?

 

Nic x

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Guest doohanok5

Hi Nic

 

This red substance (merconium) is secreted out of the butterfly's tail end and is a fluid that is left over from their wing formation. It came off our netting quite easily with a bit of soap and water and didn't stain at all - after we'd released the butterflies of course :o

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Hi - We ordered ours through Letterbox.co.uk. They arrived last week and the children are capitvated by them. We have followed their interests through supporting them in making zig zag books tracking the caterpillars progress!

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since ours done their thing in double quick time!!! the children have been bring in grubs to put in the container, i wonder what they are going to be?? still it proves that the children enjoyed the project all be it a tad quick!!

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