Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just bought two tomato hornworm cups from mullberry farms for my bearded dragons, but one of my beardies is very sick and won't eat them as they're reaching full size. I don't want them to go to waste so I thought it might be fun to start a breeding project. Fortunately I bought extra food so I can raise them to full size. Unfortunately I don't know what the hell I'm doing. I read that when they go into the pupae stage they burrow so I filled some pickle jars with a few inches of dirt, stuck some food to the side and threw the big ones in. Some immediatly burrowed a few ate more then burrowed. right now I have two pickle jars with 6-10 hornworms burrowed in them, (yeah overcrowded I know) and about 20 still eating. (but many will go to the beardie that is eating.)

So what do I do now? I was thinking about putting the pickle jars in a 38 gallon reptarium sticking in a few sticks for the moths to crawl out on (hopefully not poking a pupae in the proccess) when when they turn to moths (if they turn to moths) put in a tomato plant for them to lay eggs on. I'm thinking 38 gallon is too small.

any suggestions would help a lot. Unfortunately I have to keep this project pretty cheap because my sick beardies vet bills are killing me. and if by some miracle I get eggs, advice on rearing them would be awsome.

I live in downtown san francisco so setting the moths free isn't really an option cause they'll probably just get hit by a car or something (and they're pests) but on the plus side the weather is always mild here.

Hi - since this was posted nearly 2 months ago you have probably already either have a bunch of moths, stinky dead pupae (overcrowding) or a combination. If you are still reading this forum or signed up to get replies you can go and read this article.

I have a beardie, too and I REALLY hope yours is on the mend

lele
Hornworms

thanks for the help lele. I did some more research on this forum and found out the information I need. And now I'm back to find out what to do with the 150 or so eggs I have. they may be dead or infertile, according to your article they should've hatched by now.

I put the mots in a 260 gallon reptarium originally intended for a chameleon, but now it houses my colorado river toads and some more pupae. its really fun to watch the toads jump for the moths. They never get them until the moths are dying anyway.

If i get these eggs go hatch I'd love to try my hand at luna moths. is there anywhere I can get food for the cats? not very many sweet gum trees in sf.

and the beardie is still on many antibiotics but he seems to be doing much better.