Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have 4 year old twins and we purchased this set with the 2 live cups. This product has 3 different purchase options. In order to make sure you buy the right product, please double-check that you have clicked the appropriate option before putting it in your Amazon Cart. The 3 options are (as of April 2017): 1) The "Live Butterfly Garden with 10 Caterpillars" which includes 2 cups of 5 caterpillars, the feeding sponge and the butterfly house ($29.99); 2) The "Live Butterfly Garden with 5 Caterpillars" which includes 1 cup of 5 caterpillars, the feeding sponge and the butterfly house ($24.70); and 3) "The Original Butterfly House" which DOES NOT INCLUDE THE CATERPILLARS, instead it has a voucher for 5 caterpillars. ($19.99) This option may be better for gifts because you need to raise the caterpillars as soon as they arrive in the mail. But the issue is that the person sending in the caterpillar voucher will need to pay $7.95 for postage/processing - so they may be annoyed to pay $7.95 for a gift. Given those 3 options, I purchased the "Live Butterfly Garden with 10 Caterpillars" for $29.95. And I am very glad I did. I didn't want to pay extra to get the caterpillars by voucher and I wanted a few extra caterpillars in case any of them didn't make it. The butterflies are Painted Lady butterflies which are much smaller than Monarchs - but have similar coloring. We received the 2 cups of caterpillars with no issues. One caterpillar was DOA and we accidentally moved the caterpillar cup right as it was forming the cocoons so 3 dropped and never developed (user error). But all the rest became butterflies. I would call it a "success" and look forward to buying more next year. The butterfly cage is made of mesh. As the butterflies are emerging they will give off a red colored liquid. This is not blood. But you may want to place the cage on cardboard or paper towels to protect your table underneath. When the butterflies have been released it is very easy to clean the mesh cage. In sum - it was fun to watch the caterpillars grow because they grew so quickly. The period where they are in their cocoon was a little less interesting for kids, but you could tell they were alive, because they would sway back and forth. But the butterfly stage is awesome. We were lucky to that one of them emerged from the cocoon when we were watching - and the kids loved it. We did not feel comfortable keeping them in their cage too long, so we released them a couple days later. And it was beautiful to watch the 6 butterflies emerging and slowly flying away. Now, I bought this kit in May 2016 - and at the time their booklet had not been updated. So there was some frustration for me as to how to handle the lids and the feeding. SO THE REST OF THIS REVIEW WILL ASSIST YOU IF YOU HAPPEN TO GET AN OLDER BOOKLET. I just called the company today (April 2017) and they told me they have updated the booklet, so it now says to put the lid propped up in the little box. But if your booklet is an older booklet and it says to peel the paper off the lid and hang the lid from the mesh ceiling, then please keep reading. LIDS: The pictures and diagrams in the older booklet show that you should lift the thin film of paper off the lid and carefully pin it to the top. However, after trying to lift off the paper and a) it wouldn't lift off and b) the paper was already slightly tattered from the caterpillars, I decided to take a large safety pin, very slightly bend the pin in the middle and pin the entire lid to the top of the cage. It worked!!! (See photos) But here is where I am the idiot - they have now included little green, rectangular boxes, where you can assemble the box and then just put the lid into the box, thereby holding the lid at an appropriate angle. Of course I didn't notice this until AFTER I had carefully tried to take off the paper, given up and pinned the lid to the top. (See photo) EATING: Again, the booklet is now incorrect. The booklet tells you to dampen a paper towel with the sugar water (or flower or fruit). However, the kit now includes a red circular sponge in a yellow plastic "flower". And you just put the sugar water on that! I hope this information is helpful to you and you enjoy your butterflies as much as my 4 year olds did!