Know Your Pupae...

Okay, so for anyone else who hadn't bothered to look up what hornworm pupae looks like because your cham just gobbles them up too fast for them to last that long... here is what I found after transplanting my ficus plant.

After thoroughly freaking out that some unknown cocoon-like thing of this size was in the bottom of my plant (when I expected nothing but dirt, or a cricket or two), I placed it in this container and set out to identify it! Apparently one of the 5 hornworms my cham gets every two weeks managed to dodge my boy and burrow all the way to the bottom of my ficus and turned into this.

Really quite excited to see it 'hatch' or whatever it does, and then to release it back into my cham's cage. I get the feeling it wont get away this time. ;P

If anyone knows how to tell how far (ish) along this guy is in his 3 month journey to wings, let me know!

I know they turn into pretty easy going months Some people breed them and consider them one of the lovelier feeders to maintain.

https://www.chameleonforums.com/hornworm-breeding-journey-pictures-140695/


Heres my pictures of my journey!!


its awesome!!!

Okay, someone on a facebook forum made me paranoid... it IS okay to feed the moths to the chams right?? I thought it was... and then someone said it wasn't... and now I'm unsure... But it seems like if you can feed the worm, you should be able to feed the moth... and it would be a good challenge for him. Right?

My fault entirely. I didnt realize the group i was in (facebook) when i replied to her post. At first i thought i was posting in a gardening forum. Then when she told me she had the worm before it pupated, that changes everything. I thought she had a wild moth and it might have eaten tomato plant before pupating. My mistake, sorry!

I don't think there really is anyway to predict how long until the pupa will hatch into a moth. In nature it takes 2-3 weeks but I know that it can take months indoors and I was shocked at how big the moth is. Did not expect that large of a critter from that small brown case! As long as it is not wild you should be able to safely feed it to your cham. I am also not sure that your lizard would be at risk from a wild moth other than it could have parasites or pesticides on it. The fact that the caterpillar eats tomato or tobacco plants, protects the caterpillar but I do not think it confers toxicity to the moth. When they hatch they eat nectar so should not be toxic.

When I first raised my own hornworms. I kept the pupae in a critter keeper full of coco substrate next to my beardies tank at room temp maybe even a bit warmer because of the tank lights. They were there for about a month and I completely forgot about them until one night I found a moth had hatched.

Moths and bees are by farrrrr, my favorite to feed.

JlaPinska said:

My fault entirely. I didnt realize the group i was in (facebook) when i replied to her post. At first i thought i was posting in a gardening forum. Then when she told me she had the worm before it pupated, that changes everything. I thought she had a wild moth and it might have eaten tomato plant before pupating. My mistake, sorry!

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All good Jessica, I posted this before I saw your other response. haha

ridgebax1 said:

I don't think there really is anyway to predict how long until the pupa will hatch into a moth. In nature it takes 2-3 weeks but I know that it can take months indoors and I was shocked at how big the moth is. Did not expect that large of a critter from that small brown case! As long as it is not wild you should be able to safely feed it to your cham. I am also not sure that your lizard would be at risk from a wild moth other than it could have parasites or pesticides on it. The fact that the caterpillar eats tomato or tobacco plants, protects the caterpillar but I do not think it confers toxicity to the moth. When they hatch they eat nectar so should not be toxic.

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Good info! Thanks!

That hornworm pupae looks sick!

I have 14 pupae right now. Probaby another week or so before the begin to hatch out. I let them pupate in the house at 70 degrees, then a week later I moved themto the garage where the temp is 10 - 15 degrees warmer. I mist the eco earth they are in every day to hold the moisture. Hope this turns out good, my chams love the big fat juicy worms.

We used to set aside super worms to get them to pupate - my veiled loved the pupae.

We called them "twitchers". If you've handled them, you understand.

haha I have, and it's totally true!! The superworms I get must be treated though, because I can never get them to pupate!! I was going to breed them, but they die just before they'd normally start to transform!

MsCham said:

haha I have, and it's totally true!! The superworms I get must be treated though, because I can never get them to pupate!! I was going to breed them, but they die just before they'd normally start to transform!

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They need to be seperated to transform. Just place them by themselves in a small cup or something and it will happen.