Raising butterflies at home is a unique and rewarding project for both kids and adults alike. It’s also a fun homeschool science project – there is no better way for kids to understand the butterfly life cycle than by seeing it happen firsthand. In addition, butterflies are disappearing at an alarming rate, likely due to the growing use of pesticides and sprawling urban development, and this is a great way to help increase their numbers in the wild.
There are 3 easy ways to raise butterflies at home and help with butterfly conservation.
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How to raise butterflies at home
#1 Purchase a live butterfly kit
In all honesty I’m not a huge fan of this method of raising butterflies, but for somebody that’s brand new to growing butterflies, this might be a good way to ease into it.
Commercially available butterfly kits contain caterpillars of painted lady butterflies, one of the most common butterfly species across the world. A standard butterfly kit will contain live butterfly caterpillars and a small enclosure, and enough food to keep the caterpillars happy until it’s time to pupate. Premium kits include a pop-up mesh cage for the newly emerged butterflies as well.
Drawbacks of using commercial butterfly kits:
- The caterpillars arrive in a tiny container. Even though caterpillars don’t need a ton of space, they do like to wander around if given the choice, especially right before pupating as they search for the right spot to form a chrysalis. During the molting stage (the time when a caterpillar sheds skin as it grows) and when pupating they are vulnerable and should be left alone which can be an issue in such tight quarters. You can, of course, move the caterpillars (together with their food) into a larger enclosure of your choice.
- You’re ordering live animals. Depending on the shipping conditions and weather elements, some may not make it alive.
- You’ll need to make sure that you’re not ordering a butterfly kit too early or too late in the butterfly season according to your geographic location so the butterflies actually have a fair chance at living a life. Butterflies need warm weather to fly and do best when it’s around 80°F (26°C). It will take about 3 weeks for the caterpillars to transform into butterflies.
#2 Raise butterflies outdoors with minimal effort
If you give butterflies a little space in your yard (or on your patio), they will come and hopefully lay eggs!
First you’ll want to check your local field guide (or use this online guide) to determine which species of butterflies can be found in your area. Learn about which plants the butterflies feed on, and which plants they lay their eggs on (butterfly host plants).
While all adult butterflies eat nectar from a wide variety of nectar-producing plants, butterflies only lay eggs on specific plants which then become the source of food for the newly hatched caterpillars. Butterflies will not lay eggs if they can’t find the right host plant to lay their eggs on. Likewise, if you leave a caterpillar with a plant it’s not genetically programmed to eat, it will starve to death.
If you don’t have the right plants growing in your yard/outdoor area, you’ll want to plant some. It’s a good idea to plant a bunch of host plants as well as a variety of nectar-producing plants if you have enough space.
When buying seedlings, ask about pesticide use. Butterflies and butterfly caterpillars are very vulnerable to pesticides. It’s preferable that you avoid buying plants at big-box stores as their plants are almost always sprayed with chemicals. Your local plant nursery might be a safer bet.
Once the plants are established, monitor them and look for signs of eggs and caterpillars. You’ll want to use your field guide to identify the caterpillars and/or eggs.
Drawbacks of raising butterflies outdoors:
- If you raise butterflies outdoors you will miss out on the key parts of the butterfly life cycle like the chrysalis formation and butterfly eclosion.
- Another downside is that when you let nature take its course, the majority of both eggs and caterpillars will unfortunately succumb to predation as lots of animals feed on butterfly eggs and early instars (early caterpillar stages). It is estimated that out of hundreds of eggs, only a few butterflies will become adults in nature.
#3 Raise butterflies indoors from eggs or caterpillars found in nature
Let’s say you’ve found tiny butterfly eggs or a few caterpillars on a host plant in your yard or in the wild and you’re able to identify the eggs and/or caterpillars. You can bring them home and raise them indoors to up their chances of surviving. Don’t worry – caring for butterfly eggs and caterpillars at home is very easy.
If you find butterfly eggs on a plant outside, gently pinch off the leaves or a part of stem and keep in a tiny bit of water (or at least wrapped in a wet paper towel) until the eggs hatch (likely no more than 7 days). The eggs will start darkening in color the closer to the hatching time it gets.
Once hatched, the caterpillars will be tiny, barely visible, and best not handled. If the plant hasn’t wilted, the caterpillars will soon start feeding on it. If the plant has started drying out, carefully add fresh leaves/plant stems of the same variety for the caterpillars to move onto.
If you find butterfly caterpillars on your host plants or for the next stage after the caterpillars hatch, these fast growers only need two things to thrive:
- safe habitat
- steady supply of food
Keep the caterpillars in an enclosed habitat to keep spiders, wasps, and other predators away. You can buy an inexpensive butterfly habitat (like this one), or use what you already have (boxes, bins or containers with holes). You can make a simple butterfly habitat out of a cardboard box and mesh fabric.
The caterpillars will feed on the same plant variety you had found them on, and they’ll need a steady supply. They will eat a lot, and poop a lot. (Remove the poop every couple to few days – depends on caterpillar stage. Lining the bottom with a paper towel makes cleaning easy.) The caterpillars will molt (shed skin) several times before they get ready to pupate (about two weeks from hatching). Towards the end you can add a few sticks to the habitat for them to pupate on (they may choose a different spot, but at least they’ll have that as an option).
Timeframe of raising butterflies at home from an egg:
- It can take up to 7 days for a butterfly egg to hatch from the day it was laid.
- The caterpillar stage lasts for about 2 weeks.
- Once a chrysalis is formed, the butterfly will appear in 1-2 weeks.
(Time periods vary depending on the time of year and butterfly species.)
FYI: Butterfly caterpillars are opportunistic cannibals. They can eat each other – by accident. Eggs and very small caterpillars should be separated from larger caterpillars.
NOTE: When raising MONARCH BUTTERFLIES, you SHOULD NOT USE a cardboard box if you’re planning to raise several generations of this butterfly species. Monarch butterflies should have their environment disinfected between different lots to avoid spreading serious diseases that are harmful to them (they do not affect humans though).
We’ve been raising monarch butterflies and black swallowtail butterflies at home almost every summer for many years now!
A monarch butterfly life cycle
Fun facts about butterflies
- Apparently, butterfly vision extends into the range of ultraviolet colors which allows them to see colors that humans cannot see.
- Butterflies use their feet to taste.
- The top speed a butterfly can travel is about 12 miles per hour.
- Butterfly wings are transparent. The beautiful colors and patterns you see on the wings of a butterfly are a reflection of thousands of tiny scales that bend light and reflect it in different ways.
- Although butterflies aren’t as efficient in pollinating plants as bees are, their unique benefit in plant pollination is the much greater distance they can cover as opposed to bees. This helps plants exchange a wider variety of genetic information which can aid plants in disease protection.
