Review on Trasfit Pop Up Butterfly Habitat Terrarium by Jason Bollinger

Overall a good product for the price and serves my purpose for housing 10th yes 10! Monarch butterflies after hatching from their chrysalis in my borrowed smaller habitat. I liked the idea of planting a spurge plant in a pot to protect the small caterpillars from threats - apparently they are threatened by a parasite that is out to get them. However, for this to work, it needs to be a fairly small milkweed plant. Either way, this is a great option if you need to keep your newly hatched butterflies indoors for a while until the weather improves to give them room to spread their wings like I've had since winter. It wasn't natural for them to go through their cycle this season, but I live in San Diego so I thought it would be worth giving them a chance at life! A few criticisms: the supposed base is curved, and the mesh - wouldn't that be better. does it make more sense to be flat? Therefore, as you can see in my photo, it is a falling butterfly tower. I think putting it outside with a pot on it will work better and be more stable, but it would be nice if it made more sense indoors on a flat surface. I stayed in my guest room with the door closed to prevent my cat from messing with them. As I understand it, the bottom is mesh, not smooth plastic, because plants (e.g. grass) won't get burned underneath? Another minor gripe is that the zipper is a bit tricky to open and I would have to hold and grab it when opening it or it would shake the structure and disturb the resting butterflies. But it works and closes securely. Finally a transparent wall for a better view. I *guess* it's easier to see through compared to the mesh walls, but the poor stupid butterflies don't realize it and just sit there trying to crawl up the slippery wall. I found myself picking them up and moving them around to keep them from wearing out. All in all a worthwhile investment if you are a butterfly lover and want to keep/protect the caterpillars and make sure they turn into butterflies. I wish I had started this sooner as I have tons of Monarch caterpillars on my milkweed plants but I have never seen a pupa outside. I wonder if any of them were successful. It was really nice to be able to have a 100% chance of success by releasing 10 healthy monarchs into the world and helping monarchs who were at risk. I would highly recommend others to get involved as it is truly a beautiful and educational process.