Butterfly Habitat for the Classroom

We found a number of caterpillars and eggs in our Milkweed recently so my daughter and I decided to put together a butterfly habitat for her classroom. We have "hatched" caterpillars numerous times. You might recall the Black Swallowtail from a previous posting. We used a recycled cheeseball container then. Well, this time we had Monarch caterpillars which feed on Milkweed. Milkweed is much taller than the parsley we put in the cheeseball container so we needed something new.

I prefer to put a live plant on our containers. It is much easier to maintain because the caterpillars have a constant supply of food. Then I later add  the host plant to the garden. I have tried putting branches in floral water picks but they seem to wilt quickly and thus need to be replaced quite often. I did a little online research but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.  So I decided to check out the gift shop at the Butterfly Encounter at Luka's Nursery. There I found the perfect indoor habitat for Monarch caterpillars:

It is a rectangular container with mesh on 5 sides. One side is transparent so that the caterpillars' metamorphosis can be viewed easily. The Milkweed plant fits well inside. I lined the bottom of the habitat with paper towels to make cleaning easy. Next, I placed a plastic saucer under the plant to catch any water. Make sure you throw out any excess water so the caterpillars do not drown in it!!

We moved the habitat into the classroom and the children are enjoying it. I spoke to them about the basics of the butterfly life cycle and they were full of questions. They asked "How many butterflies are in the world?" and "Do you know everything about nature?" They are so cute and enthusiastic!

Please let me know if you need help in establishing your butterfly habitat. I'd love to help you out!