Hornworm Horror Stories

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

Share your Hornworm Horror Stories!


I have been trying to get him a nice feeder variety but looks like we over did it on the hornworms this week...and out of ALL the places he could've went!

Thank goodness @jamest0o0 roaches arrived in time to bind that up!

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

The only hornworm horror story I have has nothing to do with chameleons—just the very first time I saw/encountered one of the spikey-assed little barstads.

At out first house (city, postage stamp lot), the Missus wanted a vegetable garden, so we dug up the entire backyard & planted lots of stuff (insert endless zucchini story here) including tomatoes.
Harvest time was soon upon us, and while bending over in the tomato patch, I happened to look up and found myself hairy eyeball to hairy eyeball with this green monster the size of my thumb (and twice as long) with a harpoon growing out of its butt.

Never having seen—much less heard of—these monsters, to say I freaked would be an understatement of epic proportion.

My next moment of incredulity came when I realized how fast one of those suckers can decimate a tomato plant!

 

[Ramrod]

Not a horror story but I can remember waaay back when my brother and I were kids living in Oklahoma and we would go to our grandpa's house to look for hornworms. Grandpa being old and half blind couldn't find the little darlings that were eating his tomatoes and hedges so he would give us a nickel for everyone we brought to him. Whenever we needed some change for the
Local candy store, it was off to grandpa's for a worm hunt.

 

[Klyde O'Scope]

Grandpas are like that. Yeah, they are.

 

[Fchamel]

Haven't fed hornworms to Carly yet. Afraid to order and then they arrive massive

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

Haven't fed hornworms to Carly yet. Afraid to order and then they arrive massive

You can put refrigerate them to slow growth, I keep it at 45-55 and will take them out every other day so they can eat

Thanks for sharing everyone! It's always explosive entertainment watching a hornworm being eaten, forever cleaning the gummy worm guts of the clean white walls of the DS

 

[Ramrod]

Grandpas are like that. Yeah, they are.

Just realizing how important those little things are now that I'm the grandfather

 

[ERKleRose]

Haven't fed hornworms to Carly yet. Afraid to order and then they arrive massive

The 25 counts usually arrive way smaller (like itty bitty), especially in winter. Keeping them in a wine fridge will help slow their growth, like @Kamikaze Chameleon said (just make sure to keep them the same temp the store you bought them from does). If you’re still concerned, you can just buy the eggs and hatch them out yourself (just beware that the eggs usually have to bought in huge amounts).

 

[caroline?]

my hornworm horror story was terrible! I bought a cup of about 25 worms and i didn't know you were supposed to keep the cup upside down, and after a few days of having them some died and i didn't realize.. it literally smelled like dead rats in my room. my whole family spent about a week trying to figure out what this horrible smell was coming from, we cleaned my carpet, we basically took everything out of my room trying to find the smell.
then to find out it was the damn hornworms....
also found out my chameleon HATES hornworms

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

my hornworm horror story was terrible! I bought a cup of about 25 worms and i didn't know you were supposed to keep the cup upside down, and after a few days of having them some died and i didn't realize.. it literally smelled like dead rats in my room. my whole family spent about a week trying to figure out what this horrible smell was coming from, we cleaned my carpet, we basically took everything out of my room trying to find the smell.
then to find out it was the damn hornworms....
also found out my chameleon HATES hornworms

I strongly believe this is the main reason big box stores don't keep them anymor, the employees NEVER maintain the cups...

The last time I went to petco that had hornworms I looked and ALL their cups were nasty and bad like that, I didn't even bother opening them because I KNOW how GOD AWFULLY RANK that smell is. So I ask the girl if they have any fresh in the back so she runs over there like she didn't believe me...So she looks at one and continues to open the cup and caught a BIG whiff!!! she nearly lost it! Now anytime I DO need to get hornworms in a pinch I will call ahead but I'm now noticing a lot of the stores will only carry individual packages which is insane only a fool would buy those it's like almost 5 bucks!! I usually go with Josh's frogs, they have amazing, high quality healthy, feeders not to mention phenomenal customer service! By the time I get mine they are about a half inch, but it depends on how long it takes for them to ship to you.

 

[Gingero]

I've accidentally left the lid off of the hornworm container and came back to an empty cup and hornworms all over my apartment I was *this* close to stepping on one barefoot

 

[Gingero]

For anyone who has questions about chams and hornworms:

 

[AmandaS]

https://youtube.com/shorts/sIz389icZCo

The day I stopped feeding them on the ficus. Pretty cool video though.

 

[ERKleRose]

Rainbow Mealworms always had the cheapest for me at $8 for 25. Sadly, both of my chameleons passed at the beginning of the pandemic, so I never had to worry about the 2 week wait time

 

[caroline?]

I've accidentally left the lid off of the hornworm container and came back to an empty cup and hornworms all over my apartment I was *this* close to stepping on one barefoot

that sounds like a nightmare

 

[Kamikaze Chameleon]

https://youtube.com/shorts/sIz389icZCo

The day I stopped feeding them on the ficus. Pretty cool video though.

Woah! I'm really surprised the leaf wasn't just eaten! Haha

 

[AmandaS]

Woah! I'm really surprised the leaf wasn't just eaten! Haha

I was too! She was like "Eww, no greens please!"

 

[cruz.m]

I strongly believe this is the main reason big box stores don't keep them anymor, the employees NEVER maintain the cups...

The last time I went to petco that had hornworms I looked and ALL their cups were nasty and bad like that, I didn't even bother opening them because I KNOW how GOD AWFULLY RANK that smell is. So I ask the girl if they have any fresh in the back so she runs over there like she didn't believe me...So she looks at one and continues to open the cup and caught a BIG whiff!!! she nearly lost it! Now anytime I DO need to get hornworms in a pinch I will call ahead but I'm now noticing a lot of the stores will only carry individual packages which is insane only a fool would buy those it's like almost 5 bucks!! I usually go with Josh's frogs, they have amazing, high quality healthy, feeders not to mention phenomenal customer service! By the time I get mine they are about a half inch, but it depends on how long it takes for them to ship to you.

The prices are worse 4 for $10 you best believe I’m not wasting $10 dollars on 4 hornworms that will last me a week at most one for $5 absolutely not.

 

[cruz.m]

As for a story I’ve only fed them twice but my cham goes crazy for them. The first time I put it on the screen and she ate it right up, I was going to give her a second but as I opened the door to her cage she came right away onto my hand and ate the hornworm that was on my hand and all of the mess of the hornworm ended up on me . She of course didn’t care and walked right back up to her cage

 

[AmandaS]

As for a story I’ve only fed them twice but my cham goes crazy for them. The first time I put it on the screen and she ate it right up, I was going to give her a second but as I opened the door to her cage she came right away onto my hand and ate the hornworm that was on my hand and all of the mess of the hornworm ended up on me . She of course didn’t care and walked right back up to her cage

I've had them bite into the worm and SPLAT...all across my face. It's so disgusting.

The thanks we get for feeding yummy treats. Haha