Hornworms in the winter

[ridgebax1]

To those of you who grow your own hormworms, what do you do in the winter when there are no tomato plants for egg laying? I let one hornworm grow to maturity (just to see it). It was big and swollen and the vein pulsing down its back was amazingly creepy. It just laid in the box like an overstuffed sausage but as soon as I put it in the dirt, it burrowed under in less than 5 minutes! I am planning to release the moth in Omar's cage for him to hunt.

 

[pssh]

They will lay on potatoes too. Just spear a potato and put in a cup of water until it starts to grow. Anything from the nightshade family will work. They might lay on grape leaves. Mine will lay without any plants at all even (though tomato plants significantly up the production!)

 

[pigglett79]

You can get tomato seeds and plant your own in pots indoors. Also if you don't keep the adult worms and pupae on a long day light cycle of 12-14 hours of light the pupae will go in to diapause and moths won't hatch for months. They also do much better when kept warm.

 

[pssh]

I dont have time to grow tomatoes Throw a tater in the corner and two weeks later, bam! Potato plant!

I dont like raising them in the winter though. Where I keep my bugs it can get pretty cold, and I'm not going to bother trying to warm up a big old cage for some moths. At least with nearly all my other bugs I can put a heat pad under the tubs, but I keep my moths in a chameleon cage.

On a side note, I had a tortoise who lived in my front courtyard, and I gave him cherry tomatoes every now and then. Apparently, when I picked up all his poop and put it in my sad little compost pile, the seeds decided they would grow when I spread the compost around. I have like 15 giant 5" tall tomato plants out there just growing all by themselves. They only just started to ripen though, so most probably wont turn red before the plants die The hornworm moths really liked them though. I raised a couple of hornworms (destined to be breeders, not feeders) on the plants, and they grew really really well.

 

[ridgebax1]

I have had several "volunteer" tomato plants in my yard courtesy of my dogs. I would just throw a tomato cage over them and let them do their thing. We would get a handful of fruit before the plants died from the cold. I probably won't do hornworm eggs until the warmer weather comes back, I have a cold drafty house and the roach corner is getting very crowded.