Hatching Hornworm eggs?

[happiness]

Curious to know how to hatch them. Is it possible to do something wrong and have none hatch? I noticed a lot of my eggs have tiny brown dots on them, I'm hoping this is a sign of soon hatching.

I currently have them sitting out in my back room. It's probably around 70-75F in there. Should I put them under a light or on a heating pad?


.. On a random note. I successfully hatched my first stick bug! Exciting.

... My computer wouldn't let me upload my pictures, I'm thinking I need a driver for it (the computer was fully rebooted) so here there are from TinyPic.

 

[rshewfel]

I have kept mine anywhere from 70-85 degrees. They all hatch in around 5 days. They turn from a darker green to a light pale green a day or two before hatching. I'm not sure about a brown spot on them.

 

[happiness]

Do mine look like the pale green?

 

[rshewfel]

Do mine look like the pale green?

Yes, yours are ready to hatch. Have your food ready. I place the eggs on the lids, inside of upside down deli cups, and let the caterpillars climb up to the food. I would raise your temps to between 80-85.

 

[happiness]

Thank you so much I will do all that.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Sure is a cute little stick insect! Was it from a wild caught stick?

Your hornworm eggs are definitely about to hatch!

 

[happiness]

The stickbug isn't wild caught. I received many adults from a very friendly person on this forum.

They all hatched this morning. I had them in a container without a lid.. NEVER AGAIN! They were out of the container EVERYWHERE! Took me an hour to get them all in one place, most of them at least.

Are the hornworms suppose to be attracted to the chow like silkworms are? They don't seem to notice the food at all. I put a few baby mulberry leaves in and about 4 hornworms took a bite out of them and a few clear hornworms are pooping black, so I'm thinking they must be eating something?

 

[pigglett79]

I have never had good luck feeding hornworms with mulberry. They seem to eat it a little but never much for me. I only use the hornworm chow to start them out then feed veggies later on.

Depending on how many adult sticks you had laying eggs you could be in for an army. I am so over run by baby stick bug it is amazing. I have gotten rid of so many hundreds to friends and they keep coming.

 

[happiness]

I have never had good luck feeding hornworms with mulberry. They seem to eat it a little but never much for me. I only use the hornworm chow to start them out then feed veggies later on.

Depending on how many adult sticks you had laying eggs you could be in for an army. I am so over run by baby stick bug it is amazing. I have gotten rid of so many hundreds to friends and they keep coming.

You feed them only veggies as bigger hornworms? What types of veggies?

I hope your right about an army of stick bugs! For a while I was thinking of purchaasing more nymphs since my eggs weren't hatching. I have probably 150 maybe 200 eggs. Had another stick baby hatch today. My nosybe male LOVES stick bugs, sadly, he's been having to wait since I only had the one adult.

Any idea on how long it takes for them to become adults?

 

[pigglett79]

I feed them all sorts of veggies. They will eat various greens, squash of multiple types, sweet potato, bell pepper, carrots etc. I tend to feed the bigger ones with veggies to save on chow. But the ones I am using as breeders I feed chow the whole time to keep them growing fast.

I am totally overrun by stick bugs. I dont know for sure how many adults I had going but I get tons of babies hatching per day at this point and its out of control, especially given that I only have 1 cham that eats them.

 

[happiness]

Thanks for the helpful info. I need to write this down.