Rearing Caterpillars to Butterflies

Last December, one of my friends gave me a Christmas present, saying, "When you open it, you might think I've lost the plot." Apparently, her husband thought the present was just for children, but she thought adults would like it as well. I did wonder what the hell she'd bought me. At Christmas, I finally found out it was a Butterfly Garden!

The box consisted of a net, chrysalis station, feeding pipette, sachet of sugar, instruction book and voucher.

The following spring, using the voucher, I ordered my little caterpillars for £3.99. A couple of weeks later, my caterpillars arrived in a small plastic jar with food at the bottom.

Over the next few weeks, the caterpillars grew quite quickly and got longer and longer.

Once they were ready to start turning into chrysalises, they climbed to the top many times before eventually hanging from the underside of the lid. They then transformed into chrysalises. After a while, I gently took the lid off and cleaned the silky stuff around them so their wings wouldn't get damaged when they emerged. I then transferred them into the net.

Twelve days later, one finally emerged as a butterfly. I then placed some sugared water and a piece of banana at the bottom of the net for nourishment.

After a day or so, the butterfly's wings dried out, and it was ready to be released. This morning, I took the net downstairs and tried to release the butterfly, which is a painted lady in the garden. After a bit of encouragement, it finally flew onto the shrub in the garden. An hour later, when I went downstairs, I found that it had flown away. Success! Two to go!