Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, I was tooling through some recent past posts we made on the subject of hornworms. I got to thinking about this Shaker Village truck patch you worked at. Sure they kill those poor little hornworms in a gruesome manner, but since their chief goal is just to remove the offending pests, why not make a deal with them, have them collect the critters and submit to you at the end of each day what they find?
I just bought some small packets of tobacco seeds from a grower back east. Yes, these are typical smoking-type tobaccos, although I do not smoke nor have any desire to start. The motive is to grow a large stand of tobacco here at home....as fresh feed for hornworms, reserving that expensive artificial feed for the off-season.
Meanwhile, I had mentioned using it as feed for lab-raised hornworms and even asked for any ideas on which ones had the biggest and most leaves. He was very accommodating and even sold me the varieties most attacked by hornworms. Unfortunately, coming upon him so late in the season, I missed all the hornworms he pulled off the plants. He even found them in early instars as well as full-grown.
Since what I'm sending off for are tobacco hornworms, I told Dan he need not mess with that species, but that I wanted ALL tomato hornworms. He has agreed to be more careful of identification next summer. My deal is to pay for the value of his tobacco fed to them and pay for shipping of the pupae. Maybe $4-9 worth of crop if he finds like 50 of them.
I really think many gardeners and small-scale farmers would be happy to turn over hornworms and other "pests" alive and unharmed if they received some compensation for their care or were just guaranteed that their progeny would never be released back to the wild where their crops would become infested.

Hi

"truck patch"? is that an OK thing? hahaha! Got the Shaker Village part. Actually that is a really good idea but it is 45 minutes away. If it was closer I might consider it. I will have to think this winter if there is a place near by. Maybe I can round up a couple neighborhood kids (have two who are real insect lovers) and we can monitor neighbor veggie gardens!

That is neat that you have worked out this "business" with this guy! It would be interesting to pursue something like this. One thought, that I am sure my entomologist and ecologist friends would point out is gene types (NH to TX) as well as transporting diseases or parasites that don't exist in a certain region. But once you get a clean colony going it would be great.

I wrote to Robin in CA and waiting for his reply. Email me your address again and I will send you the Xerces issue with the "Friendly Fire" article.

lele

Lele, I have thought about the possibility of a disease factor, but I can only presume any hornworms or other Lepidoptera healthy enough to make it through a complete metamorphosis are likely to not have any diseases. Just like plants need genetic diversity, it will be a good thing for insects, too. Infact, I think one reason we have so much disease and parasitism in certain species within a region, is due to lack of genetic diversity and stronger gene pool. We see this in plants quite a bit and is often the case with many vertebrate animals.I'd bet it's the same with inverts. It's just a law of biology.
I guess I'm just used to the wide spaces of Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas. 45 minutes was a typical trip to anything bigger than the town grocery store where I usedto live in Kansas. I'm willing to go all the way to Dallas for some live caterpillars if someone there has more than just 2-3 of a species I really want. This infused diversity is maybe jst something to bring up local io populations. I figured you would contact the owners of that vegetable farm and have workers collect several hornworms, which maybe you could pick up each weekend, rather than just have them destroyed. It's not cutting in half that bothers me, it's just the loss of them, period.
If I can build a small greenhouse this winter, I want all the hornworms [shipped as eggs or pupae] as i can get. I'm in touch with the depts of agriculture in 2 western states right now, looking at Manduca hornworms as biological control for a very noxios weed. The weed is not even native to North America and flat does not belong here. Perhaps I can build a self-supporting small business farming Manduca sexta and quinquemaculata for bio weed control as well as for science projects.
I'm ready for a change. Raising budgies is nice, but their noise is deafening!