I had the pleasure of purchasing butterflies to release, and from start to finish, it was an amazing experience. I was nervous about the whole process, but Tamara took the time to explain every detail of the release process to me with enthusiasm and patience. They are clearly well informed and care about their beautiful butterflies! read more

planned for a beautiful butterfly release at a celebration of life for my significant other who past away. ordered plenty of time ahead of service with specific instructions that I needed them the day before. the butterflies arrived a day late and that part of the service was ruined. read more

My husband and I ordered 5 months in advance received quick confirmation. Order updates came 2 months prior. Shipping etc. Butterflies were beautiful and appropriately energetic. Just kept them in medium air temp room =/less than 72. Switched the ice pack once wrapped in paper towel. 2 sets of Butterflies even stayed to mate. Great updates & communication, will update with photo read more

This company does not deliver monarchs to California, but yet they allow you to place the order and take your money. No where on there website while I was placing this order did it state monarchs cannot be shipped to California. I placed my order on 9/18/18. Two days later 9/22/18 they sent me an email explaining they don't deliver monarchs to California, but they could ship a different type of butterfly. Email? Really? Poor communication on their part. They absolutely dropped the ball. Piece of advice, call your customer instead of emailing them. Common sense people. Being that I was mourning my grandma and busy with her funeral arrangements my focus was not on checking my damn email. On 9/24/18 they finally call me as I did not reply to their email. I called them back, no answer. Left message on machine. I also checked my email to see if they had reached out to me and little did I know, there it was. I also replied to that email. No reply. Mind you, my release day was on 9/25/18. So, again, poor communication on their part. If I didn't reply to that email on Saturday someone should have called me a couple hours later. Or Sunday?! Why did it take them until Monday to call me?! On 9/24/18 late evening I sent them an email requesting to cancel my order as I hadn't heard from anyone. Due to their incompetence I had to scramble to find another company that would be able to deliver the butterflies I needed for the funeral the next day. At my grandmas viewing, SMH. Lucky for me I found one. On 9/25/18 they finally replied to my email. It stated, "Unfortunately we did not receive your communication in time to ship the butterflies." My communication? Such a joke of a company. I did get a full refund. Thank goodness. read more

This company went above and beyond. First of all, I placed my order only one week ahead of time instead of the requested three and they were very accommodating. I also wanted a very small number because this was a birthday present for my friend. They had no problem with my ordering only six butterflies. The butterflies were very active and healthy and flew away right away! I would recommend this company to anyone wanting to release butterflies! read more

I've ordered several times, usually last minute.... Always great customer service and so nice for remembrance releases. Very responsive. Highly recommend! read more

Last month, I purchased a "butterfly adoption kit" at Michigan Native Butterfly Farm (MNBF) trailer at the Hennepin County Fair. I have purchased caterpillars three times in the past from Insect Lore. All three times, at the very least half of the caterpillars survived and became butterflies. The ones I purchased from MNBF, however, ALL died within a couple days. I called and asked if they were willing to send me replacements since none of the caterpillars lived. The first comment/response was "Well, we can't control what happens after you buy them". Huh?? This isn't rocket science, the entirety of the instructions is "Step 1. Put somewhere out of direct sunlight"...The End! That's it. And sorry, but every company on the planet can make that same claim, trying to blame the customer. Every one of them. So what's the purpose, other than to try your best to NOT take responsibility? You provided a product that did not perform as it's intended, no different then buying a broken TV. How many times has anyone been asked "well, you took this TV home and we don't know what you did with it after that". She did eventually agree to ship me new caterpillars if I paid the shipping. Gee, thanks. Well since my daughter already had cried that her caterpillars died, not like I have much choice, so ok, I'll pay shipping. I was very amicable and reasonable in discussions, and in an email, I suggested that it would be a great customer service if they decided to upgrade me from the ground shipping to 2nd day to make sure they survived this time. Did they choose to? Nope. Frankly, given the attitude I felt like I got, I'm surprised they agreed to ship new ones at all. Very disappointing from, as she liked to mentioned during our discussion, a "professional" breeding company. When my caterpillars finally arrived, they had sent basically adults, the very next day some started on their chrysalis. So much for watching them grow now too. Obviously I don't expect anything from MNBF, you've made it clear you don't want to help some single customer that may have tried feeding the caterpillars chocolate and beer when I got home, I mean, who knows what I did! But maybe someone will see this and choose to purchase from a company that values ALL customers. read more