Butterfly gardens are great because you get to watch the metamorphosis of caterpillars changing into butterflies. Once they’re grown up, you can keep them or set them free. However, no matter what you choose, these butterflies don’t live for more than a month or so once they are adults. This means that all butterfly habitats will end up empty eventually, but this doesn’t mean that you have to put them away and never use them again – just buy a butterfly kit refill and do it again. With these refills, you get more live caterpillars and food for them, so you pay less than the cost of the full kit.
It is important to remember that when you order live caterpillars, you need to make sure that the temperatures outside where you live are safe enough for them to get shipped to you. In general, this means that you shouldn’t order them during the winter and possibly during the middle of the summer, depending on where you live. 40 degrees Fahrenheit should be a minimum and 85F as a max. In most cases, if day temperatures are above 55F, it is generally considered safe to ship.
For live caterpillars, we recommend Insect Lore. They are the original creators of the butterfly garden kit and have been doing this for more than 50 years, so you can rest assured that they know what they are doing and provide healthy insects.
Insect Lore 5 Live Caterpillars
Most butterfly kits come with 5 caterpillars, so this is a standard refill for those kits. Insect Lore guarantees that at least 3 out of the 5 will successfully grow to become a butterfly. This comes with a chrysalis station, which is a platform with a plastic disc that gives them a place to attach and spin their cocoons when it comes time to enter the pupa stage. You’ll also receive an caterpillar quick care guide with this kit to ensure that you’re able to properly take care of them to ensure they reach adulthood.
Insect Lore 10 Live Caterpillars
For larger habitats or just for people that want to have more butterflies this time around, the 10 live caterpillars package guarantees at least 6 adult butterflies. It comes with all of the same things as the smaller refill, but your cost per caterpillar is much less with this larger refill.
Nature Gift 5 or 10 Live Caterpillars
The only downside to the Insect Lore refills is that they are a bit on the expensive side compared with the price of the full habitat kit. Nature Gift is another well known company that makes butterfly kits, and they also offer refills but for less money. They also guarantee 3 out of 5 will survive to become butterflies, but they also include a mister and butterfly feeder that you won’t get from the Insect Lore refills. This can be ideal for people that want to try to keep the butterflies alive and not release them into the wild, although most people do release them to give them a chance at reproducing and freedom.