Insect Lore Ladybug Land | Ladybug Growing Kit Habitat | Redeem Voucher For Live Ladybug Larvae

They were fascinated by the transformation process and learned about the life cycle of insects. We also incorporated this activity into our science curriculum, teaching the children about the different stages of development and the importance of patience and observation. It was a wonderful learning experience for them and I am proud to see their curiosity and interest grow through hands-on experiences like this.

Cute little ladybugs doom, plastic and durable!

My 5-year old daughter and I just released our adult ladybugs into our yard this morning. It was a wonderful experience, from start to finish! Our first batch of ladybug larvae didn't seem to be doing very well, so I called Customer Service and they quickly shipped out another batch of larvae, which was much appreciated. We ended up with approximately ten ladybugs growing to maturity and it was pretty fascinating. The dome lid sits very loosely on top of the Ladybug Land, so I put two pieces of scotch tape on each end so little fingers wouldn't knock it off by accident. The larvae and ladybugs would hardly move until I shone a light on them while observing, so if you want some action, this seems to wake them up. Then they scoot all over the place! Two of our ladybugs were having an "intimate moment" this morning as we went to release them, which was hilarious to explain to my daughter. She can hardly wait to see the new baby ladybugs that will be arriving in our yard! We will be definitely be ordering anther batch of larvae to start again, it's a very educational and fun project.

I was excited to purchase this for my kids to witness the life cycle of lady bugs. I also have an organic vegetable garden and was equally excited to release the adult lady bugs into it when they were adults. I never got to fully do either..... I found this kit when I was searching for "live lady bugs" to order as beneficial insects for my garden. I though this would be great. Based on the first two 5 star reviews from 2004 on this product I went ahead and ordered. - You have to pay $5 more to have the lady bug larvae shipped to you.... ( I wish this was in larger print on the product description page, not a big deal as I understand shipping live insects does cost money, just wish I had seen it before ordering) - Our first batch of larvae all arrived DOA. I emailed customer service and they told me to wait a week to make sure before contacting them back. They said sometimes the larvae do not move much and need time to acclimate. I wrote them back after a week as everything still was DOA. - The second batch arrived a few days later. The company does ship well and provided tracking and email confirmations which was nice. This time only half the contents of the shipping vial were DOA. You can clearly see the live ones moving around. I think the week wait was a little much. You should be able to discern viability in just 24-36 hrs. However, they do make you wait the required number of days. - We filled the dome food tray with the wet sponge and placed the larvae inside. Soon mold began to grow on the food sponge and larvae started dying. Within one week all the larvae were dead despite us cleaning out the mold and following the instructions to the letter! - It is a real heart breaking experience for the kids to watch the larvae not make it. We also don't like seeing that as well. I believe the habitat's design could be better improved upon. The larvae food, feeding, water sponge and air circulation seem to be the main factors that affected us. - I can only conclude that I would have been way better off just ordering larvae and putting them directly out in my garden. The kids could have visited the garden and we could have tried seeing them there. After spending $20 to end up with a cheap plastic habitat that will end up in the garbage and to watch 2 sets of lady bug larvae die, it was definitely not worth it! I think there are some major issues here..... I wish I could return this but by the time all of this has occurred it is now past the 30 return window. I hope this review helps and perhaps has saved some lady bug larvae lives..... Anything that involves live creatures should absolutely be well tested and continually monitored and updated as needed to ensure the best for the creatures and people involved. This is just not acceptable.

As promised by the company, I received a tube of approx 11 super small ladybug larvae with brown-colored powdery food. Let it be known that the commercial posted here on Amazon is inaccurate/ not recently updated. It is beginning of March in Northern California (temp = 55-70 degrees) and all the ladybugs arrived in the tube ALIVE! Hooray! I'm already luckier than several other Ladybug land customers. haha. Its been almost 2 days and they've grown so much. I followed the instructions except for one step so far... The instructions and the Amazon video indicate to dump the tube's contents through the habitat's small hole at the top. After reading other negative reviews regarding moldy ladybug food beforehand, I decided that this action would actually cause the ladybug food to spoil, probably causing a toxic environment for the ladybugs. So, I actually took off the clear cover of the habitat first. Then, I dumped nearly powdery food onto the habitat's dry flattened area on the side of the hill. Still having the tube's open end on the flat area, I guided the clear cover's small open top over the tube's closed end. Be quick though, because you don't want to lose a ladybug! Once the clear cover snapped into place, then I emptied the paper strip and ladybugs into the container. This allowed the food to stay on the side of the hill. Finally, I used the enclosed dropper to place bottled water droplets into the gray fuzz in the water reservoir. Another option is to empty the clear cover upside down and then snap the bottom habitat into the cover while everything upside down. My 2.5 yr old daughter is really enjoying the ladybug larvae right now. 3/16/2014 update: The larvae have now molted into adorable little ladybugs! Super easy maintenance of just adding some drops of water into the fuzzy ball reservoir. Nothing else needed to be done. Being a science nerd, I'm having more fun than my daughter, but whatever! Its fun. Its cheap. Its easy maintenance. Its been 2 weeks and they appear to be alive. So far, 11 ladybugs total. I'm happy with my experience. Company delivered ladybugs as promised. Ladybugs healthy and fun to watch. No problems at all. 3/21/2014 update: The larvae turned into adult ladybugs after 3 weeks of having them. Everything went an planned, according to the instructions. I am very pleased with product and my daughter enjoyed it so much! Due to the instructions indicating the ladybug life would be approx 3 weeks in habitat, I decided to let them free now. Too bad.... lots of fun! Looks like we'll need to order more soon!

I bought this for my son's third birthday. He's already an avid entomologist. The larvae arrived just as expected already shedding its skin, which each one did multiple times. It was fascinating for my husband and me as well. The three of us found ourselves glued together watching these amazing creatures as the larvae shed it's final skin and entered the pupa stage. Several days after the fully-formed ladybugs emerged (they were yellow at first), we set them free into our back yard. They have a distinct appearance which is slightly different than the ladybugs we're accustomed to seeing around here. Therefore we have been able to easily identify them when we come across them in our yard. We received about 14 or 15 ladybug larvae and all survived to become ladybugs except for one, which I consider to be pretty impressive. The container was especially effective because my son was not able (or tempted) to manhandle to ladybugs, yet it was easy to keep the water filled with the specially designed lid and water tube. We had an excellent view of all the events taking place inside. I would recommend purchasing books to go along with this. We had four different simple books relying upon excellent photographs and easy-to-understand descriptions. This heightened my son's (and our) anticipation and helped us to better understand what was happening. I can honestly say that this has been well-worth the price we paid for it. Soon we're going to get a refill kit of ladybug larvae and begin anew.

My son loved this. Fun, easy to care for the lady bugs and didn’t cost a lot

I'm giving it five stars for my son, who's five and loved the thing. And honestly, I think kids who want to keep a few bugs for a short time and watch them would love it. As a mean, spiteful adult on the internet though, it's my Internet given duty to complain about things which I'm not the target audience of. So.... The product is not very solid; kids aren't expected to play with this, and it's built accordingly. The clear plastic bubble keeps sliding off, ladybugs get trapped between the mountain and the bubble, and we lost our voucher for more "free" bugs (plus S&H charges of course). We did manage to get some live caught ladybugs to lay eggs (at least I hope that's what those yellow dots were), but then the whole thing turned into a steamy terrarium (too much sunlight?) and all the bugs died. On the upside, the instructions suggested feeding them a wet raisin, which was something I didn't know. For $20 it feels overpriced. Do yourself a favor, and just go buy a bag of live ladybugs and keep a few in a better cage (a jar with some holes punched and covered with a fine mesh should work fine). It'll be cheaper, make for a better cage, and your kids will get to see several hundred live bugs from the start (just be sure to not try and keep them all in one small jar) who will then get to go and live in your yard (or so my crushed hopes once said). My kid gives it all the stars, I give it 2 stars. I paid for it, so my rating has more weight, and I'll call this a 3-star item. Seriously though, in a classroom, or as something to put on a child's dresser, I can see this being a 4 or even 5 star item. In my experience, 3-stars seems fair.