Hornworms

Daguerreotype13

Daguerreotype13

Member
At my house, we have a plethura of tomato plants growing and if you look, you can see dozens of Hornworms (tomato worms) crawling all over them.

I've read up and "supposidly" though hornworms are a delicacy, the tomato plant itself it toxic to chameleons and thus, hornworms that feed on the tomato plant itself are toxic to the chameleon.

It is because of this that i am timid to try feeding these hornworms to my chameleon. A guy i met who says he has been keeping and breeding chameleons for years told me he grows tomato plants for the soul purpose of feeding his chams the hornworms and has never had a problem.

Any insight? Are these hornworms alright to be fed to my chameleon?
 
I've read that from a very well known breeder that he has a friend who has been keeping chams for years and does that. Maybe same person? lol...

I wouldn't just because of the stigma you will go thru and also what if? what if situations aren't easily forgotten if something does occur.

pays to be cautious.

if you want some tips or if you want you can send me the large worms, i can pupate them myself and mail you some fresh eggs with chow?
 
I have fed Hornedworms off of my plants and had no problems. That was before I knew they where toxic and I have stopped feeding them. But I had no problems but you never know.
 
ColorCham427 said:
I've read that from a very well known breeder that he has a friend who has been keeping chams for years and does that. Maybe same person? lol...

I wouldn't just because of the stigma you will go thru and also what if? what if situations aren't easily forgotten if something does occur.

pays to be cautious.

if you want some tips or if you want you can send me the large worms, i can pupate them myself and mail you some fresh eggs with chow?
Click to expand...

yea but what is the chow you feed? isn't it like ground up tomato leaves? what else do they eat?
 
JDUBK said:
I have fed Hornedworms off of my plants and had no problems. That was before I knew they where toxic and I have stopped feeding them. But I had no problems but you never know.
Click to expand...

I have done the same before when I first bought my veiled and didn't know any better. Nothing happened to him either and I fed him multiple hornworms that had been eating my tomatoe plants. Better safe then sorry, though.
 
So how do I take the "toxic" hornworms and clean them out so that theyr safe to eat? Or do I just captivate them and feed them greens and carrots and wait for their toxicity to depleat? And if this is the correct method how do I know when this is?
 
unless your cham is big enough to take on the full grown hornworms it would probably be a waste to detoxify them cause they grow super fast. Unless you wanna do your research and try to breed em but then again there a great addition to a diet but too many will make your cham fat. I just buy em off a site sponsor when I feel my guys deserve a treat. Again buy small cause it will only take a matter of days before they may get too big.
 
Mr Gahn said:
Hornworms will eat anything!
I feed mine carrots and lettuce coated in the same gut-load I give the crickets. 20-25 large hornworms will devour a head of lettuce overnight!
Click to expand...

I always thought that hornworms would only eat the specific type of plant food they were raised on. In other words, if you cultivate them on prepared food that's all they'll eat. If you take them off tomato plants they won't eat anything else. I have also heard that if you do take them off a tomato plant the way to "detoxify" them is to feed them tomato FRUIT only. The tomato plant's toxin is stored in the leaves, not the tomatos.
 
They ARE expensive, there's only two stores that I know of in OC that have them and they sell them for $1 a worm, or $15 for a pod of about 20. Thing is, they BOTH get them from the same place and I haven't seen hornworms (aka goliath worms) for anything cheaper than about 50 cents a piece. Might as well feed my chams Jr. Whoppers they cost the same.

Im no conspiracy theorist (okay maybe I am) but it sounds like the whole tomato leaves being toxic to chams is a malicious rumor.

Don't take my word for it though, I've never tried to feed my chams anything wild caught. Best follow everyone when they say, better safe than sorry.

Better a CB cricket than one found in the street.
 
Last edited:
kongchi said:
They ARE expensive, there's only two stores that I know of in OC that have them and they sell them for $1 a worm, or $15 for a pod of about 20. Thing is, they BOTH get them from the same place and I haven't seen hornworms (aka goliath worms) for anything cheaper than about 50 cents a piece. Might as well feed my chams Jr. Whoppers they cost the same.

Im no conspiracy theorist (okay maybe I am) but it sounds like the whole tomato leaves being toxic to chams is a malicious rumor.

Don't take my word for it though, I've never tried to feed my chams anything wild caught. Best follow everyone when they say, better safe than sorry.

Better a CB cricket than one found in the street.
Click to expand...

yea i was actually thinking the exact same thing. I mean you hear all over the internet about how the leaves are "toxic" to the chams, and that if you feed them hornworms that have been feeding on the worms then, transitive property, the cham is ingesting the "toxic" leaves and gets sick. Has anybody heard of an instance where a chameleon actually DID get sick from eating hornworms that fed on the tomato leaves?

Still said, this "rumor," implying that it is in fact just a rumor, still keeps me from experimenting in fear that my little guy will getta belly ache :(
 
kongchi said:
Im no conspiracy theorist (okay maybe I am) but it sounds like the whole tomato leaves being toxic to chams is a malicious rumor.
Click to expand...
You're right, they aren't toxic.
Ryan Jarosek said:
They are not "Toxic" they have really high levels of Vit A in them. The could potentially be dangerous if enough was consumed.

Thats why its not good to feed hornworms to Chams that have been feeding on Tomato plants.
Click to expand...
 
kongchi said:
They ARE expensive, there's only two stores that I know of in OC that have them and they sell them for $1 a worm, or $15 for a pod of about 20. Thing is, they BOTH get them from the same place and I haven't seen hornworms (aka goliath worms) for anything cheaper than about 50 cents a piece. Might as well feed my chams Jr. Whoppers they cost the same.

Im no conspiracy theorist (okay maybe I am) but it sounds like the whole tomato leaves being toxic to chams is a malicious rumor.

Don't take my word for it though, I've never tried to feed my chams anything wild caught. Best follow everyone when they say, better safe than sorry.

Better a CB cricket than one found in the street.
Click to expand...
I know a place called https://www.carolina.com and they sell hornworm eggs that are 30-50 eggs and they sell it for $19.45
 
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