Insect Lore Cup of Caterpillars – 5 Live Painted Lady Caterpillars with Food ...

The first cup that came, all 5 caterpillars were dead. (We waited the 48 hours for them to “wake up” but they were rolled into a tight ball and pretty obviously not alive.) I contacted insect lore customer support and they were so easy to work with and sent a replacement so quickly! Second cup was perfect and they all made chrysalids and turned into butterflies and it was so fun! Want to note that this is just the caterpillars because we already have all the other stuff from the kit that we did previously, so this is just to raise them again. You shouldn’t order this if you don’t have the butterfly enclosure already.

We ordered this 2 years in a row and they caterpillars are always good. This recent batch from May 2025 only 4/5 turned into a chrysalis- the baby caterpillar melted into the food after the first 2-3 days. Overall good, shipped quickly and made for a memorable tradition.

WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT!! My son and I have ordered these for the last 4 years and this shipment was the WORST! In the past we had enjoyed watching the teeny tiny caterpillars feed and grow until they were ready for their next phase. Not this time. They were HUGE when we got them and then they made their chrysalis within less than a week. Totally false advertisement on 5 caterpillars. We got 4 and only one emerged. You used to get a cute booklet to chart their progress. This time we got a QR code. It's evident that this company is more concerned about making higher profit margins than the overall experience they claim you'll have. This will be our LAST PURCHASE. My recommendation is go with a different group. That's our plan.

Purchased these for use in my self-contained classroom. They arrived all alive and thriving on eating their 'brown mush' as my students called it! All 5 made it into cocoons and transformed into butterflies! I was surprised as I assumed we may lose one or two! The instructions were clear and helpful, and I already had a little butterfly mesh 'home' for them to be placed in. As you lift the lid to transfer the cocoon's, you do have to be careful not to let any of them fall. Overall, I was very impressed and will be purchasing again!

All 5 caterpillars survived! I purchased a kit in-store (different brand) and none of the caterpillars from that voucher survived so I ordered these and I'm glad I did. We ordered these for a butterfly unit study and it did not disappoint. We enjoyed watching them transform from caterpillar to butterfly so much I'm planning to order more next year.

We purchased a kit that was supposed to include five live caterpillars, but unfortunately only two arrived alive. The other three appeared to have died before they reached us. The two surviving caterpillars were healthy and successfully transformed into beautiful butterflies, which was a wonderful experience. However, it was disappointing to pay for five caterpillars and only receive two living ones. We are grateful that the two survivors did well, but we hope future customers receive the full number of healthy caterpillars advertised. Better quality control during shipping and packaging would greatly improve the experience.

We have had good success with butterflies and caterpillars in the past with another brand but they were not available yet. We were excited to try out this brand to see what they offered. At first glance everything appeared ok. However there were supposed to be 5 caterpillars but there were only 3. The size of the cup was standard but the caterpillars even after growing to their full size appeared smaller than average. Overall the quality seemed to be lacking in the process and it was not good value for money as not all the caterpillars even arrived. After the 3 had grown they went into their chrysalis but only 2 emerged and were very small. We did release them but it was not quite the experience we have had in the past with another brand.

We weren't sure at first, when only I've of them was slightly moving when we got it. Soon enough all 5 were moving around quite a bit. I thought all that food at the bottom was overkill, but these things at a ton of it and it seemed they doubled in size every day My kids from 5 to 16 loved watching their progress. We released them in our front yard and had all the neighbor kids enamored It was a blast learning as a family. I'd definitely do it again!