Happy Home® Butterfly Rearing Cage
Native Nurseries was promoting butterfly gardening long before it was discovered by the retail nursery industry as a new source of revenue. We’ve been building (and improving on) our butterfly rearing cage for decades. Many of our customers are interested in butterfly projects, are familiar with our butterfly rearing cage and many have been lucky enough to be on hand at the nursery for some metamorphosis magic... either caterpillars becoming chrysalides or chrysalides becoming butterflies!
With our latest improvement (a collapsible top with a removable, Velcro trimmed net cover), we believe the design now provides the utmost in function, simplicity and durability. Advantages to the new design include a cover that can be removed for cleaning or replacement and a cage that can now be easily stored or mailed (the new design also weighs less).
For most of the year, we have at least one occupied Butterfly/Caterpillar Rearing Cage here at the nursery. Customers (young, old and in between) love to check them out; and when they get lucky, they get to watch metamorphosis in action. The whole nursery comes to a halt as everyone gathers around the cage to watch and wonder!
The coffee lid technique shown in figure no. 1 holds cuttings and keeps caterpillars out of the water – cuttings are inserted through the lid and held upright.
Figure 1
Figure 2
As you can see from the drawing and the picture above, the caterpillars form chrysalides in the top of the cage. One advantage to our butterfly cage is the entire dome top lifts off allowing for easy cleaning and feeding without disturbing or harming the chrysalides.
Note: the drawing depicting the coffee lid technique is of a previous design. The other two drawings on this page are of the new design.
Removable support wires and Velcro trim make the new design of the Native Nurseries Butterfly/Caterpillar Rearing Cage easier to use, store and ship.