As you know by now I rear Giant Silk moths for fun/education not feeders. Well, I began my lepidopteran rearing adventures by raising tobacco hornworms (cousin to the tomato hornworm)! About 5 years ago, I was getting a tomato and put my hand on something squishy - at first, I jumped back then I looked closer at this 4” long thing that blended so well with the foliage I was amazed! I then wanted to know what it turned into so I went online and found the sphinx moth, which I was impressed with merely b/c of its size (though’ it comes nowhere close to the 6” wing span of the giant silks!). So I chopped off a piece of the plant and brought it in to rear it. As I collected food for it every day I ended up inadvertently bringing in more that I wouldn’t even see until later. I eventually ended up with 7 of these critters ranging in size from ½” to 4+”. My Mom was visiting at the time and we were both so entranced by these things (believe me, you can watch caterpillars eat with rapt attention as much as we can watch our chams!). I lost 2 to parasitisation, 2 never eclose (emerged as adults), 2 did (this is a 9-10 month process b/c they over winter as pupa) and 1 ended up crippled when it eclosed b/c the stick I had it on became dislodged so it was unable to climb and expand its wings. OK, ready for this??? I named him Toby and hand-fed him for 5 days! Their proboscis (mouthpart) is about 2 ½ times their body length and need to hover in order to feed on plant nectar. It was quite a feat but I was determined! After 5 days we both sort of gave up (he would have only lived another 2-4 days if he was “normal”) so he then went into the freezer. I still have him perched (crooked wings and all) on a dish of lavender flowers and when I do a presentation with my Giant Silks, monarchs or other s leps for kids I always bring Toby along to stress the importance of having a way to climb and expand their wings. I must say, it makes quite an impact on them – I have photos of feeding him that I show as well.
Just a month or so ago I ended up with a Northern Apple Sphinx moth laying about 100 eggs. I brought it in to i.d., put her in a rearing cage overnight, and would release her the next day – that is when I saw all these tiny day-glo green eggs! Anyway, I sent some to a fellow lep person in California who rears many different sphinx moths and does presentations at schools, museums and other venues. He used to breed them for sale but stopped once he realized that many were being fed to herps. I could never feed one to any of my guys. I even had a hard time ordering the silkworms (for those of you who don’t know, they are not the same as silk moths) when Makeda got sick. When I was ordering the silkworms for Makeda I wrote to Robin (friend in CA) and told him of my ethical and personal dilemma and asked if he would disown me as a friend if I fed them to her 
I have almost 60 luna and cecropia moth caterpillars right now and it would never even occur to me to feed one to the chams – they are my lovely blue, red, green and yellow “pets” - plus now they are 4x the size of Bart!
So my point in all this is how varied we all are on where we draw the line. Many people see the hornworms as great feeder insects, some see them as pests in the garden and I see them as totally fascinating and humbled by there life cycle. This doesn’t make any of us good or bad people or right or wrong it is just personal choices.
As for the person that you refer to, Sonia, obviously her choice was to not sell them to you b/c she sees them as Robin and I do, but her comments of not paying bills and being “Reptile People” was not obviously stupid and narrow minded. I am the proof that t you can be both a “reptile person” and a lep lover!
looney lele 
