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I have never feed my turtles hornworms because they are so ugly!Box turtles will eat most types of insects but some turtles have preferances and may not like a certain type of insect. Some insect have a foul taste in which case your turtle will not eat it, or much of it. I don't know if they are safe, but I haven't heard of them being unsafe either. Has anyone?
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Tess
Kingsnake.com Forum Host

Heh...I say if it looks good to eat, you can try it. That's a general statement that a person should be wary of however. For instance, I wouldn't try yellow jackets, big tarantulas, centipedes, bees, scorpions and other venomous bugs, if that sounds obvious enough. Plus, if you notice insects and invertebrates that live in the turtle's natural habitat, they seem like good options because the turtle may eat them in the wild. Hopefully, the worst that can happen is the turtle doesn't like the taste and spits it out, learning not to eat it anymore. My box turtle didn't like june beetle grubs for a while, but has learned to accept them. Therefore I offer sparingly.

Aren't hornworms the caterpillars of some kind of edible butterfly or moth? They eat tomato leaves, if I recall. If they don't have spikes on them, they're probably safe to eat. But then again, u wouldn't feed ur turtle monarch caterpillars, etc. Don't be afraid to experiment...but watch out for pesticides and be careful about poisonous bugs.

Hope this helped.

Johnny

Thanks for the help, yeah hornworms are the ones that eat tomato plants... I will try feeding them to my turtle tomorrow... he doesnt seem to like silkworms so hopefully he will like these guys...

Tomato hornworms squirt 'tobacco juice' when threatened, which might act as a deterrent as it might be smelly or taste bad, but then again, grasshoppers do the same thing (squirt), and turtles eat those.
Let us know what happens.
Stephanie

Where do you even find hormworms? Do you buy them locally or just outside?
Thanks, Josh

Well both my turtles ate them, the big and the small one... the big guy ate the whole hormworm the little guy took little bites and ate most of it... it was like silkworms... they take a bite and the eat a bit and when it stops moving they lose interest..

And they were a bit thrown off by the green of the hornworms.. i think the little one thought i was trying to feed him vegetables.. he hates when i try to feed him vegetables. But eventually he ate most it...

I wouldn't feed Tomato Hornworms to any animal. Tomato Hornworms are the larva of a very large type of Spinx Moth. What you need to know is that tomato plants are very toxic in their leaves because they are Nightshades, and all of the Nightshades have poisonous leaves and edible fruits. The Hornworms feed on the leaves and pick up the toxins and store them in their bodies to deter predators. Is is enough to kill a turtle? Who knows, but I would hate to find out the hard way! That is why your turtles did not want to finish them, most likely. They tasted the bitter toxin.

You can buy Tomato Hornworms from places that sell feeder insects but they have been fed a special substance to keep them from picking up the toxin in tomato leaves.

Yeah i got mine from the reptile store... they were fed that stuff similar to silkworm chow but i different colour...

I'm glad somebody said it.
Hornwroms are dangerous.