Hornworms months

[repdog]

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.

Ok so you are in the same place I'm in. I just have half the months you have. I do agree that they are loud. Let me know how the hatching goes.

 

[carbyville]

I am jealous you're getting so many eggs! I still have about 15-20 cocoons that I'm waiting on. Everything is all set up; old Reptibreeze, the hummingbird feeder and nectar, a plant, but.. no months lol. Just a bunch of wiggly cocoons. Are there any clues to knowing if they're close to hatching?

 

[repdog]

It took mine 4 weeks to hatch. I sprayed the cage with water every day sometime twice a day. The first time I tried this it took 5 weeks to hatch but I was not very good with spraying the water. Also that little bit of watering made a huge difference in the moths. I had better luck with the wings.

 

[carbyville]

I should probably start keeping a chart of when they pupate. I've just put so many into the dirt that it's hard to keep track. I do know that I had about 5 pupate on September 12th, so I've got some waiting to do before I'm at the 4-5 week mark. I mist them daily, sometimes twice as well, cause it's been very hot here. So I guess it's just a matter of waiting for them.

 

[PatsyB]

I have one big beautiful moth that hatched on Saturday and another one that is in the process of coming out of the shell. It's very cool to watch it wriggle around and get out. I had a small moth on Friday that fought all day to get it's little "helmet" off his head, he couldn't get it off and his wings were stunted so Saturday morning I fed him to my cham, talk about MESS, but he loved it!

 

[Dro B]

Remember that these often need long daylight hours to eclose same season. If they don't eclose within 5 weeks, they will need to be refrigerated for at least a few months. Bad eggs are usually darker and shrivel up pretty quickly, but not all the time. If they're bieng fed, then it's pretty likely your eggs are good. Moths dont fertilize internally, the female collects sperm from male and eggs are fertilized as theyre bieng laid, im pretty sure the sperm is with the "glue" the female produces to stick eggs to hostplant. I put mine in small plastic containers with paper towel and a few drops on water and put them on top of my dvr which usually stays at 79 degrees and they will hatch in 4 to 6 days that way. I breed a few diff. Sphinx species so I could be off by a day or two I know one species I breed hatches within 3 days. If you dont need the eggs, please donate them to a local reptile shelter! If you don't like collecting eggs, put females in separate cage lined with newspaper and a feeder, it's a hell of a lot easier to cut the eggs offpaper than to scrape them off of everything.

 

[ridgebax1]

I checked my eggs that I collected into a Rubbermaid container and there are babies!!!! I had to quickly throw together some chow for them as I was on my way out the door to go to work! I put my pupa in some potting soil in a container with a lid. I left the lid off by about an inch so the moths were able to crawl out after they hatched and the dirt did not dry out as quickly.

 

[carbyville]

Well, crazily enough, after just saying I've been waiting for cocoons to hatch last night, THREE hatched over the last few hours. They aren't doing much, though. Just hanging out on the screen of the repti-breeze. Food is there for them, but they aren't touching is. I'll check on them again in the morning and see what's going on, or if there are anymore that've come out to play.

 

[ridgebax1]

They stay pretty still when they first emerge from the cocoons. They need time to let their wings fill out. They also do nothing during the day but as it gets near dusk they will become active. As I was leaving for work tonight a female was hovering around the hummingbird feeder and laying egg on it. I also had some babies inside the reptibreeze as well, so I put some chow in there and hopefully they will gravitate to it. I have hundreds of eggs! I am going to give some to my friend so her kids (3 & 5 yr olds) can watch them hatch grow and pupate, then she is going to give the pupa back to me so they can hatch.