Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone here know how to breed hornworms?

hey stranger, haven 't seen much of you lately! How's Orion doing??

As for hornworms. You may recall that I am not one to give rearing info on hornworms b/c I have had them as "pets," so to speak, but I am willing to help an old friend

Are you starting with larvae? adults? eggs? They feed (as larva) on plants in the tomato/tobacco family (Solanacae) which is toxic so in order to feed them to chams they need to be fed an artifical diet. You can make your own if you can find all the ingredients (see link) or order from Mulberry Farm or other(?) places.

Depending where you live (sorry, I forgot) their pupation can be as long as 10-11 months. The adults are handsome creatures and I, for one, cannot bring myself to feed them (any stage) to Luna. If you want to breed/mate adults you need to be aware that they do feed on nectar and that their proboscis (mouthpart) is about 1.5 - 2x their body length and they need to hover in the air to feed (like a hummingbird). So....if you have more questions let me know

lele

Link

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

I am looking into getting a baby veiled and I am looking forward to having lots of new bugs around. I'm going to start keeping silkies and really want to get some hornworms. I'll probably buy some larvae from canadianfeeders.com. how many do you think i should start with?
if it makes you feel better, i'll probably keep them as pets as well!! they sound really pretty!! I will have a hex tank that's 3.5' tall that would be perfect!

I'm in ontario canada
are there any other type of feeder insects you would suggest to raise?
I'm not allowed roaches, i told my dad before i took an adventure with crix that they'd "never escape". My cat knocked over a tub with a few hundred once, and one day all of my pinheads learned how to escape the tank. That was interesting... lol

where should i get the ingredients?
I could probably go to my old school and see if my bio teacher could order it for me. I could even give him a few worms for class pets (he likes stuff like that, they have trout right now). Any other ideas?

Hi Lindsay,

hmmm...that's the problem. There is a really cool site with loads of info. I am not sure if he sells the diet and/or ingredients but you can email him and check it out. Most likely you will have to purchase the diet b/c even if you find all the ingredients you will have to create it under sterile conditions. But check some biological supply companies like BioQuip, Carolina Biological, etc. I am sure there are some in Canada, too. MAybe your former teacher can order the diet wholesale so it is cheaper. Good Luck!

lele
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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)

The Manduca Project
Link

-----
0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (both MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta
1.0 African Clawed Frog (for summer)
0.5 Mad. Hissers (for summer - all girls, no little ones, whew!)