Caterpillar Cup Refill
BEGINS SHIPPING APRIL 2025.
Experience the wonders of the Painted Lady butterfly life cycle!
This is a memorable and educational activity for families, schools, and loved ones. Watch as the caterpillars grow, turn into chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies. Releasing your butterflies into your garden is a meaningful and symbolic way to help you connect with nature.
This is a refill cup ONLY. Does not include a mesh enclosure. Includes the following:
A cup containing 4-5 Painted Lady larvae feeding on an instant diet
A digital copy of instructions accessible via QR code.
Expect this entire process to take about three weeks.
BEGINS SHIPPING APRIL 2025.
Experience the wonders of the Painted Lady butterfly life cycle!
This is a memorable and educational activity for families, schools, and loved ones. Watch as the caterpillars grow, turn into chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies. Releasing your butterflies into your garden is a meaningful and symbolic way to help you connect with nature.
This is a refill cup ONLY. Does not include a mesh enclosure. Includes the following:
A cup containing 4-5 Painted Lady larvae feeding on an instant diet
A digital copy of instructions accessible via QR code.
Expect this entire process to take about three weeks.
BEGINS SHIPPING APRIL 2025.
Experience the wonders of the Painted Lady butterfly life cycle!
This is a memorable and educational activity for families, schools, and loved ones. Watch as the caterpillars grow, turn into chrysalises, and emerge as butterflies. Releasing your butterflies into your garden is a meaningful and symbolic way to help you connect with nature.
This is a refill cup ONLY. Does not include a mesh enclosure. Includes the following:
A cup containing 4-5 Painted Lady larvae feeding on an instant diet
A digital copy of instructions accessible via QR code.
Expect this entire process to take about three weeks.
Shipping & Delivery
Packaging
Caterpillars are placed inside cups that have been pre-filled with an instant diet. These cups are placed inside an insulated shipping box in preparation for shipment. Caterpillars are cold-blooded and their metabolism is greatly influenced by the ambient temperature. This means that when the caterpillars are cool, they go somewhat “dormant.” We want to mimic this naturally occurring phenomenon to ensure that the caterpillars to not overheat during shipment and make it to their final destination safely.
Shipping or Local Pick-Up
Within the state of Kansas UPS delivers within one day via Ground. This means we can offer reduced shipping for our Kansas residents! One day shipping and an insulated box & ice pack ensures that your caterpillars arrive before the ice packs stop doing their jobs.
Delivery
Track your order so that you can be at home when your package arrives. Bring your package inside away from the summer heat as soon as possible to avoid potential overheating on your front porch. Open your package immediately, inspect the contents, and read & follow the provided release instructions. Upon delivery, it is important to check on your caterpillars ASAP.
When exposed to warmer temperatures the caterpillars typically begin to crawl around, unless they are preparing to molt. If they are preparing to molt, they will not move (they are likely not dead, simply preparing to shed skin to allow for more space to grow).
Commonly Asked Questions
Guarantee
We guarantee arrive-alive. Upon unboxing should you discover that there is a problem with the contents of your order, please contact us immediately. To qualify for the guarantee, we require contact within one hour of delivery. We are not responsible for shipments unless they are opened at the time of delivery.
We require pictures of all damaged products so that we may properly discern what went wrong. On the rare occasion that your caterpillars have arrived dead, we require that your picture includes ALL of the dead larvae. For example, you ordered ten caterpillars and five of them arrived dead—we would need one photo of all five caterpillars together to qualify for the guarantee.
To reiterate, if your shipping box should be significantly damaged during transit, do NOT throw your box or its contents away. Save your box and its contents so that you can take pictures and file a claim with UPS. Please also send us your photos so that we may be better able to handle situations such as this with our courier.
Please send us an email with photos of the problem to thehatcherybutterflies+URGENT@gmail.com and call/text us at (316) 226-9473. If The Hatchery is not contacted at time of delivery, the guarantee is void. If we do not receive photos via email within 24 hours, the guarantee is void.