Hornworms months

repdog

repdog

Member
Ok so I started this project from the posting on here about hornworms and the fact that they cost so much. If I have to buy them locally instead of online our joke is I'm going to buy gold. So here is my question. I had 35 left over hornworms from my last order. I now have them hatching in a smaller extoterra all glass cage. I now have eggs in there and would love to clean it out and remove the eggs.

Big question is how does anyone raise these moths? What kind of set up? I do not have a tomato plant in there so the eggs are just all over the place. Need something better and can't find anything online.
 
I usually check youtube videos of the setups I am looking for. From those, I make my own version of what suits my needs. It helped with my housefly and Blue Bottle setups and feed stations. For raising moths, most just let them grow on hornworm chow until they cocoon. Once they seal up, I place in seperate container to emerge. I feed them immediately upon emerging. Really not much to it.
 
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I don't think it matters, they will lay their eggs where they feel they want to lay their eggs. Even with a tomato plant they will lay on the mesh and branches their habitat. I would just keep things simple and not have a lot of places they can hide eggs.

I keep mine in my chams old reptibreeze. The pupa are in a plastic container in cocofiber and I have a tomato plant and a hummingbird feeder.
 
I forgot to say, I heard that the tomato plant stimulates them to lay more eggs, it's not just something for them to lay the eggs on.
 
Very good news. I will not use a tomato plant. I have so many eggs that they have laid already. No clue how to get them out without having the moths fly all over the house. I only have a few branches and a gutter guard bent in the cage for something to climb on. But I just ended up with so many hatching that I never thought would have. Guess I did it right. Now just to see if the eggs hatch. But REALLY don't need as many as they are laying. My cham is not interested in the moths this time around as he was with one of them before.

How long do the moths live for?

I must be searching for something wrong as I can't find anything about housing and collecting eggs. I used all the search engines and you tube.
 
I've only had the moths live for about a week, week and a half. They basically just mate and die.

There is very little info about raising them on the internet. The only thing I ever found that was some help was the manduca project.

The eggs aren't fragile, you can just pick them off or scrape them off whatever they are on and just put them in a container with some gutter guard so they can hatch. I also make sure I have hornworm chow on hand to feed them.
 
I go in an remove eggs during the day. The moths don't move during the day if you don't touch them. I have a blog in my signature with all of my set ups (well most as I didnt finish adding all my feeder projects before I was overwhelmed with a new baby).

Anyway, you can really get in there and do whatever you want during the day as the moths are sleeping and really don't care what you are doing. I have never had a problem.

I really want to update my blogs as I have some new techniques and details to add........soon baby is 7 months now and life is getting more manageable.
 
Perfect pigglett79. I think I found your blog before so I'm on the right track just is a bigger mess than I would have thought. I can see how they would get out of control in a hurry. Just got done cleaning out the cage and wow the eggs. I moved the moths into a garbage can while I was collecting the eggs. Not doing that again. But I got all the eggs and of course they are some in the garbage and by the time I got done getting them back into the cage I had more eggs on the floor. No clue what to do with them all.
 
repdog said:
Perfect pigglett79. I think I found your blog before so I'm on the right track just is a bigger mess than I would have thought. I can see how they would get out of control in a hurry. Just got done cleaning out the cage and wow the eggs. I moved the moths into a garbage can while I was collecting the eggs. Not doing that again. But I got all the eggs and of course they are some in the garbage and by the time I got done getting them back into the cage I had more eggs on the floor. No clue what to do with them all.
Click to expand...

You can send me some.....that's what you should do with them.
 
OK this is going to sound bad, but in the past when I have all the eggs I need and then some, I have put the moths in a zip lock storage bag and put them in the freezer to die. No reason to keep dealing with the mess when you have all you need for that round.
 
My husband thinks I should sell them but I'm so far from that. Containers to ship in and then the whole shipping. But I just might send some to try for you. Let me see how this all goes.
 
Ya that I couldn't do. REALLY not letting them go outside either. Those I find on my tomato plants I do however kill those. Go figure that one out. Although I can't touch these. They just creep me out right now. Roaches use to do the same thing but I knew I had to get over it. So in time I will have to get over this as well. Right now my husband is getting them out of the cage for me.
 
You can send eggs in those little like salsa to go containers or any small container. Sometimes they hatch on the way and maybe some die but its easy that way. You dont have to worry about deli cups and food. I really mainly sent my extras to people I knew so if something did go wrong it wasn't a big deal. I never wanted to deal with selling and complaints etc, just not worth it for me. If you aren't a feeder seller I feel like its not worth the hassle, time and issues in trying to sell them, you aren't going to make much anyway and its a pain to deal with it. I haven't bred them since I had my baby so now I just buy them online like everyone else lol. But I wont lie, I am enjoying the break from all the work. It gets old after a while.
 
How did you get eggs if you don't know how to take care of the moths? I breed a few different species of sphinx moths and the species that's feed on vines/vegetables/shrubs usually have to be fed honeywater (1part honey to 4 or 5 parts water) or sugarwater in order to mate and lay eggs, tobacco worms included. Moth moths are like salmon, the females produce eggs no matter what and will lay them no matter what but if they aren't fertile they won't hatch. Did you witness any pairings?
 
You can feed peppers or carrots until chow arrives. They'll also eat mulberry leaves if there's nothing else around. Best to let the carrots dry out a little bit as the high water content isn't always good.
 
I recently allowed about 40 worms to pupate and have had almost half of those hatch into moths. I have them in an old reptibreeze. I put in a hibiscus plant for them to lay on but as others have said they lay anywhere and everywhere. It is really cool to watch them fly around at night, they are quite noisy! During the day they do just hang out on the screen. I am not a fan of moths either and try to think of them as night time butterflies! The moths are pretty docile during the day. Even if you pick them up to move them they do not flit around too much. They will just crawl on my finger when I have to move them. I have tons of eggs. They are on the screen, the hummingbird feeder and I have paper towels on the bottom and they are on there too. Now I just hope they hatch.
 
Wow yes the eggs are by the tons. I quit at getting them everyday as I can see how demanding it is. I have really no idea if they have matted as I'm normally in bed when they are moving around.They start to move around in the cage at 9pm. In bed by 10pm. I do know they are eating as I can see all the hummingbird food color on the paper towels in the cage. By the time I get to check on them the reptile cage lights are on and the months are done moving.

So yes I have food for the moths to eat and pretty of containers set up with chow in it for the eggs to hatch on.

There is not much info out there about the mating and egg collecting and how to tell is the eggs are good or not. That is what I was looking for. There is a total of 20 months so I would think so of them have to be good.

5 containers with eggs and a bunch more from last night that need to be collected.
 
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