Bug burger

[Brandonmh]

I got my hornworms today from great lakes hornworms. I got two 50 ct egg cups, got maybe like 12-20 hatched in each, might be more, and have enough food to get them to 3/4-1". Got them that way becuase fingolfin is a juvi yet and was curious if bug burger would work as sub food.

 

[Allen Repashy]

I actually have a small hornworm breeder/seller who has been using bug burger as the exclusive diet. That being said, the big problem is it may be difficult to switch them from one food to another because they have a reputation to "lock on" to whatever they first start to eat. You might need to start from eggs with bug burger to have the best success, though I know some have been able to switch their worms over.

Here is a hobbyist link to someone who have posted about it.

http://www.alamocityagama.com/hornworm-breeding

Allen

 

[pssh]

That is really interesting. They have been able to successfully breed several generations using bug burger as an exclusive diet? I know they aren't picky with the food they eat, but I would have thought that bug burger wouldn't have had enough of the particular nutrients that they needed to continually produce healthy adults. Though I guess it does have choline chloride for the wing development.

And for anyone else, I have always found that it is very easy to get hornworms to switch between foods and gutloads. Silkworms, not so much.

 

[Allen Repashy]

Hi Spiffy......

Your right, I was assuming that hornworms would have the same switching issues as silkworms, as well as saturniid Moths (I raised Larva on a walnut leaf powder based Bug Burger) , and Phasmids (I have been playing around for a few years now with Phasmid gel diets using Bramble and Euacalyptus leaf powder based formulas (different formulas) I just assumed that hornworms would be difficult to switch also, so wanted to make sure people considered the possibility.

As far as bug burger being a complete diet, I spent a lot of time developing and researching the formula and ingredients (It contains over 50 ingredients), and it should meet the nutritional requirements of most all non host specific grain/leaf eating insects quite well. One of our customers has been using it exclusively for more than a year with hornworms, so I would assume that this would be more than just a few generations.

The only concern expressed was that when mixed at 3:1 the worms were producing excessively runny poops, and this was resolved by reducing the ratio to about 2.5:1.

Cheers, Allen

 

[Brandonmh]

Thanks. I got some hornworms of larger size this last weekend at the show and pulled someout and made another cup with screening for gutloading with lettuce and some bug burger. I appreciate the info.