Growing Butterflies

Of all our Easter and Lent traditions, growing butterflies may be our family favorite. It is amazing to watch the butterfly life cycle, and it has so many connections to the Easter story. This page explains how to use the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden that my family enjoys. From the time you order the larvae, the process can take up to 5 weeks (1-2 weeks to get the larvae and about 3 weeks to grow the butterflies), so decide when you want the butterflies to hatch and plan accordingly.

Insect Lore’s butterfly garden kit is typically sold for under $20! It comes with a mail-in voucher for five butterfly larvae and food (the only cost is $5 for shipping).

After we mailed in our voucher, we got a little jar with butterfly larvae (it took about a week). The larvae grow into caterpillars and then cocoon (form their chrysalis) on the lid of the jar. This process took a little over a week for us.

Next, we pinned the lid to the side of the butterfly garden. The kids checked regularly to see if there was any change. We make sure to discuss how this process reminds us of Jesus in the tomb, as we await his resurrection!

Sometimes the cocoons fall to the bottom of the butterfly garden. By the way, you should be warned that sometimes the cocoons wiggle violently; we learned that this is a defensive mechanism to scare away predators. We placed a napkin under the cocoons, because the hatching can sometimes be messy (they excrete a blood-like liquid called meconium) when they hatch. We were grateful to get to see some of the butterflies hatch (the others happened overnight and we missed them).

Beautiful Painted Butterflies emerged — amazing! We discuss how “by his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also” (1 Corinthians 6:14). Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, he is going to raise all believers! God is going to clothe us with new, eternal bodies (1 Corinthians 15:35-58) to live forever with him on a new earth. Peter writes: “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness” (2 Peter 3:13).

We enjoyed the butterflies for a few days before releasing them. They liked drinking from oranges and flowers (with a little sugar water dripped on them).

Insect Lore made this how-to video if you would like to see the process on video:

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