How to Raise a Caterpillar With Your Children

Raising a caterpillar with your children can be a fun experience.

Raising a caterpillar with your children is a wonderful way to spend quality time with them, teach them about the beauty of life and teach them a science lesson all rolled into one simple yet life-changing experience. With a few simple preparations, you can raise a caterpillar through its metamorphosis into a butterfly.

Things You'll Need

• Wide-mouth glass jar or plastic shoebox
• Caterpillar(s)
• Leaves, fruits, flowers
• Twigs
• Paper Towels

Instructions

1. Catch a caterpillar, or several of them, out in the trees or fields, or in your front garden. You'll find caterpillars in the spring and early summer all around the fresh growth of leaves, grasses and flowers. Catching more than one betters your chance of producing at least one butterfly or moth.

2. Place your caterpillar in a wide-mouth glass jar, a plastic shoebox or another container that will have a lid that you can punch small air holes in and still see through. Gather fresh leaves, grasses and plants like the ones where your caterpillar came from and place them inside the container with the caterpillar.

3. Put small, pencil sized twigs and branches inside the container with your caterpillar and its food. You can also place small pieces of paper towel in the container to absorb excess moisture and prevent mold. Be sure to change the leaves and plants each day to give the caterpillar fresh food.

4. Watch for your caterpillar to grow and turn into a chrysalis. When it is ready, it will attach itself to one of the twigs upside down and begin spinning a web around itself, which will then turn into a hardened shell, where the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly will take place.

5. Check the chrysalis each day to see if the butterfly is ready to hatch. Most will hatch in 10 to 14 days. When the transformation is complete, the butterfly will emerge from the cocoon and slowly pump up its wings. It will now be time to release it to the wild, but be sure to take some photos to document your children's excited response to your caterpillar project and its results.

Tips & Warnings

• Try to collect several different kinds of caterpillars for your project, as this increases the variety of moths and butterflies that will emerge.

• Be prepared for some of your caterpillars to die or for a few of the cocoons to produce wasps or other parasitic bugs.

References

• The Children's Butterfly Site: How Can I Raise a Caterpillar?