Raising Butterflies

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If you have grade school aged children, raising butterflies can be a great experience. Monarchs make for one of the most ideal to raise at home. This can be a great hands on experience for them. You can teach and show them the different life stages of the butterfly.

The first thing you really should do is purchase a book about monarchs this will help your children begin to understand their life cycle. Monarchs lay their eggs on common milkweed and also use it as a food source. If you want an easy way to get monarch eggs, you can plant milkweed  in your garden. Monarch eggs look like a tiny white football often on the underside of milkweed leaves. Then you simply clip the leaf the egg is attached to with a scissors. Once you have your clippings, you can place them in a tupperware container.

This can make a good temporary home for the eggs. It won't be long until they start to hatch and turn into tiny caterpillers. You will need to supply new milkweed leaves every few days. Make sure to remove old leaves, since they will mold before too long. A butterfly net house is a great place to move your caterpiller as it begins to grow. These make for a great location to house your caterpillar as it changes into a butterfly. Just make sure you watch when opening them so you are aware of any chrysalis, as not to harm them.

The chrsalis will be a bright green, and remain that way until the moment before the butterfly immerges. Before it comes out, ussually within 24 to 48 hours it will turn clear, where you can actually see the monarchs wings.

The butterfly book is a great resource to learn more about housing butterflies and attracting them around your house. This is a great learning resource for your child and is well worth the read.