Ward's® Painted Lady Butterflies

I brought a kit of 30, eager to end up with many butterflies, as the reviews I had read reported an excellent survival rate. They arrived right on time! I was very excited to start. On arrival, 27 caterpillars were alive and I found 3 dead. Not bad. Only about 16 looked healthier, active, and bigger than the rest. Things turned for the worse, however. I was loosing caterpillars left and right. Many stopped eating and growing. Others were unable to form a crysalis and seemed lost or stuck in their frass/webbing. Others died in their J position. I ended up with about 17 crysalides. 3 had fallen from the top of the container and appeared dented, others seemed smaller compared to the rest. Ones that struggled to form a crysalis did so almost a week after the first few. At this point, I was not disappointed with 17 crysalides. Now I'm certain I followed and re-read every step on the enclosed instructions, even reading extra information online about painted ladies to be prepared. However, a disturbing amount of the caterpillars emerging from the crysalides were unable to expand their wings. Only 7 were able to fly. Out of 30. I am currently taking care of the crippled ones (varying from barely any wings at all to half-expanded) as best I can but it is disheartening. I understand these are fragile animals and deaths are to be expected, but I feel my results are below what is expected. I wish I knew what went wrong. I would like to re-attempt but may be looking to other companies in the future.

It's a great resource, once it comes to the correct address and with sufficient survival rate. This year (2019) we did not have a great experience with Boreal, There were mistakes with the addresses (a glitch on the website, a wrong address label), one order arrived with 2 alive larvae out of 32, another one had only 28 in total (not 30) and 5 dead ones. The customer service was always helpful and resolved the issues, however it shifted all the plans, since we needed to wait another week or two for the replacement to arrive. I also noticed that overall survival rate was lower than previous years, too many larvae died a few days after arrival and many did not make to the chrysalis stage (they "exploded") I would still recommend this kit but advise to double check all the info with their customer service

"Order. Learn, Enjoy. Repeat." That sums up our amazing learning experience (and future mandate by my colleagues) with the Painted Lady Butterflies that we ordered from Boreal Science. The instructions were extremely clear and simple, the learning was fantastic, and the consensus was unanimous by all 13 Kindergarten to Grade 3 classes to order and repeat this wonderful experience. That's for the great way you partnered with us in our learning this past year.

Our kindergarten class was so excited when our box arrived from Boreal and the excitement only grew from there. We will definitely be ordering in the future. Thanks!

The painted ladies were delivered on time. We did have an issue with one of the orders and a solution was found quickly and efficiently.

Our students learned so much from observing the life cycle of the Painted Lady butterfly. It was a wonderful opportunity and easy to do. I recommend it to elementary school teachers .

The 30 set of larva arrived on Friday of the delivery week with 29 alive.

The products were delivered quickly and safely. My students loved getting to watch the caterpillars go through their life cycle.

I have ordered this product more than once and the students love it. Unfortunatley last year there was a mistake during the shipping (not Boreal's fault) and we got it late. When I called Customer service I spoke to a lovely person and she assured me that should there be a high mortality rate when my order arrived they would replace it free of charge. Lucky for me, everyone was safe and alive.

We order these kits each year for our school. Always impressed.

These butterfly cages are worth the money- they are secure and easy to clean- there are alternatives out there BUT they don't compare to the ease of using these!

Fantastic!! Only 3 did not survive. The children loved learning about the cycle and watching them grow. An excellent hands on learning activity.

I have ordered the 30 larva kits two years in a row. I have about a 90% success rate of butterflies emerging. The students love seeing the living caterpillars and following the change. I usually have some of the larva feed on thistle so they can see the difference between natural food vs the medium and it helps students to see the connection to the natural world. Thanks for the opportunity to raise these amazing creatures.

I put in an order for two of these full kits and bought an additional net for three classes to enjoy. Students absolutely loved it as well as the teachers - including teachers that saw it for the first time. They want to do the same thing with their class next year! I wrote student names on the larva cups using a permanent marker. I let students name their caterpillar and I wrote the name of the caterpillar on the top of the lid. They really enjoyed that. When transferring the chrysalis into the enclosure, make sure to use a strong tape, such as duct tape to fasten the lids to the top of the enclosed net.The net is reusable and can get stained with the colouring from the butterfly wings (students thought it was blood at first). Hopefully we can wash them for next year. I would definitely order these again.

This product was great! It was delivered on time- with email updates. The caterpillars were shipped with the food so there wasn't any extra preparation needed. The children in Kindergarten enjoyed watching the caterpillars get bigger and bigger and follow the life cycle stages that they had learned about. They are currently in their chrysalis and we are still anxiously awaiting the butterfly stage Thanks!!

The students thoroughly enjoyed this unit in science class this year. We were satisfied with the ease to order the kit online, the efficiency of the reception and the quality of the product. The instructions were easy to follow also. I recommend this kit to teachers who would like to give their students the opportunity to experience this wonderful life cycle.

I received a medium kit (10 larvae - each of the cups actually had 7 larvae for a total of 14) on June 29th. It was fascinating to watch them develop. All 14 larvae formed a chrysalis. The first two butterflies emerged yesterday (July 16th). As of this morning, 10 butterflies have emerged. I will see if the other 4 emerge or not. The butterflies are doing well and a pleasure to observer. This is definitely something I would like to repeat next yeat, but starting earlier in the season. Thank you for the opportunity to raise these butterflies.

Amazing!!! - I got this kit for my daughter and me last year to watch the process of larvae turn into a butterfly and it was great!! And the best part was setting them free and letting them climb on our hands to fly away, some of them didn't want to leave!! The steps were very easy to follow, so this year I want to get another replacement kit to share with my neighbors younger kids, they will just love the e