Hazel (age 8) has written into KCC with these helpful tips on how to raise monarch butterflies and a video showing one of her butterflies emerging from its chrysalis.
Checklist:
* Safe and dry home
* Holes at the top so that they can breathe but not escape
* Swan Plant/Milkweed
* Paper towel dampened slightly under the leaves
* Leaves and paper towel changed every day to remove poop as they can get sick from it
* Don’t shake their home when they in a chrysalis
* Do not put their house in direct sunlight
This is Tahi, my first butterfly ——————>
Facts:
➢ It takes about 3 weeks for a caterpillar to be fully grown.
➢ Swan plant has a poison in it that helps stop the caterpillar
from being eaten but paper wasps can still eat them and many
die because of this. That is why I raised mine inside.
➢ When a caterpillar is ready to turn into a chrysalis it makes a
silk pad and hangs in the shape of a j.
➢ A butterfly is in a chrysalis for 8-15 days.
➢ The chrysalis will turn black and see through the day before hatching.
➢ Once a butterfly, the spectacular creatures wings will be crumpled, they
need to hold on to their chrysalis so they can pump blood through their
wings and body so they can fly.
