290
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #89,815 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★★★★
Teacher and Parent
I bought this for my son's third birthday. He's already an avid entomologist. The larvae arrived just as expected already shedding its skin, which each one did multiple times. It was fascinating for my husband and me as well. The three of us found ourselves glued together watching these amazing creatures as the larvae shed it's final skin and entered the pupa stage. Several days after the fully-formed ladybugs emerged (they were yellow at first), we set them free into our back yard. They have a distinct appearance which is slightly different than the ladybugs we're accustomed to seeing around here. Therefore we have been able to easily identify them when we come across them in our yard.
We received about 14 or 15 ladybug larvae and all survived to become ladybugs except for one, which I consider to be pretty impressive. The container was especially effective because my son was not able (or tempted) to manhandle to ladybugs, yet it was easy to keep the water filled with the specially designed lid and water tube. We had an excellent view of all the events taking place inside. I would recommend purchasing books to go along with this. We had four different simple books relying upon excellent photographs and easy-to-understand descriptions. This heightened my son's (and our) anticipation and helped us to better understand what was happening.
I can honestly say that this has been well-worth the price we paid for it. Soon we're going to get a refill kit of ladybug larvae and begin anew.
July 2004 · Toys and Games · verified purchase