Raising Tomato Hornworms. Success!

Nightfeathers

New Member
Since there is so little information out there I thought I'd report on what I've gotten results with. As background, I mail ordered some tomato hornworms as part of a chameleon food sampler for my veiled, a male named Piper. <3 Well the caterpillars were growing a lot faster than he could eat them and I ended up with 7 pillars that were no longer eating and looking to pupate while he was too full to care. Since I had some eco earth sitting around for other reptiles, I figured why not experiment. I took a small plastic storage bin about 1 foot by 4 inches or so, put in 2 inches of moist eco earth, and put the leftover pillars inside. By the next day they were buried. I kept the lid on because it did not fit tightly, and opened it once a day. After a while I did mist it a bit because it was starting to dry out.

I am not sure of how long they pupated as I didnt take note of when they went in. They emerged not long ago though despite the relative cool temperatures. Of the 7 that went in, 4 emerged. 2 of those did not fill their wings out properly, but that was my own fault as I wasn't expecting them having never raised moths before. 2 ended up perfectly winged. 1 of the bad winged ones died early, the other is alive but not active.

I moved the adults to a 10 gallon aquarium under a plant light set on a 13 hours on light cycle. Inside the tank is a Cambells soup thermos cup lid with about a half inch of hummingbird food in it, one branch that goes into the cup and up onto a rock, and a piece of cork bark. All of this is on paper towels which seem to absorb nicely.

Two days ago I noticed eggs. I saw at least 50 eggs scattered around the cage. Today I found my first 4 caterpillars. I am trying out some different foods trying to see what they like. I have tiny bits of romaine and carrots in there and they seem to be gravitating towards the carrots. They are wandering a lot though so I am not sure at this stage if they like the carrots or not.

Other than the hummingbird food this was all stuff I had sitting around my house anyway, so it didn't really cost anything to try. I will try to update with how this goes! Oh and temperature wise its heading into winter now so my house is a little cool, and I do not supplement with heat of any kind. The bulb is florescent.
 
Hey Nightfeathers,
Your Hornworm success sounds like my next project. I have a spare 10 gallon tank, I'll give it a try also.
I have tried breeding silkworms with limited success. I have Roach, Superworm, and Stick bug colony's going to help keep the costs down. Bugs are half the fun. Do you keep any other colonies going?
Thanks for sharing
Dave
 
Pics or it didn't happen ;)! I think pics are what people wanna see, even if theyve seen it a hundred times before!
 
Hey Nightfeathers,
Your Hornworm success sounds like my next project. I have a spare 10 gallon tank, I'll give it a try also.
I have tried breeding silkworms with limited success. I have Roach, Superworm, and Stick bug colony's going to help keep the costs down. Bugs are half the fun. Do you keep any other colonies going?
Thanks for sharing
Dave
Silkworms are too easy to fail! I will trade black silk eggs for some sw's or roaches if you wanted. I think a 10 gal is a bit too small, but you can let the moth free in a bedroom if there isn't too many places for them to get lost in. I keep min in a large box for first 36 hours+ first feeding to make sure they void all body fluids,(smells so nasty compared to my other sphinx species,like garter snake musk that's been mixed with garlic and mustard and fermented for 3 days, not even joking, plus it sprays out first time you touch em, once hit my face and I threw up) then let them fly freely in a spare bedroom. Nothing cooler than walking in with a sodacap filled with honeywater and having them come up for a drink in midair! I'd offer some eggs from current batch but I have a deal worked out with someone already. Once you shut the lights off and see a female lay an egg, as she's drinking, you hurry and get her into a large box, could be cardboard, and offer her a drink every few hours. I'm looking into posting vids and pics soon. Good luck if you do go for it.
 
Since there is so little information out there I thought I'd report on what I've gotten results with. As background, I mail ordered some tomato hornworms as part of a chameleon food sampler for my veiled, a male named Piper. <3 Well the caterpillars were growing a lot faster than he could eat them and I ended up with 7 pillars that were no longer eating and looking to pupate while he was too full to care. Since I had some eco earth sitting around for other reptiles, I figured why not experiment. I took a small plastic storage bin about 1 foot by 4 inches or so, put in 2 inches of moist eco earth, and put the leftover pillars inside. By the next day they were buried. I kept the lid on because it did not fit tightly, and opened it once a day. After a while I did mist it a bit because it was starting to dry out.

I am not sure of how long they pupated as I didnt take note of when they went in. They emerged not long ago though despite the relative cool temperatures. Of the 7 that went in, 4 emerged. 2 of those did not fill their wings out properly, but that was my own fault as I wasn't expecting them having never raised moths before. 2 ended up perfectly winged. 1 of the bad winged ones died early, the other is alive but not active.

I moved the adults to a 10 gallon aquarium under a plant light set on a 13 hours on light cycle. Inside the tank is a Cambells soup thermos cup lid with about a half inch of hummingbird food in it, one branch that goes into the cup and up onto a rock, and a piece of cork bark. All of this is on paper towels which seem to absorb nicely.

Two days ago I noticed eggs. I saw at least 50 eggs scattered around the cage. Today I found my first 4 caterpillars. I am trying out some different foods trying to see what they like. I have tiny bits of romaine and carrots in there and they seem to be gravitating towards the carrots. They are wandering a lot though so I am not sure at this stage if they like the carrots or not.

Other than the hummingbird food this was all stuff I had sitting around my house anyway, so it didn't really cost anything to try. I will try to update with how this goes! Oh and temperature wise its heading into winter now so my house is a little cool, and I do not supplement with heat of any kind. The bulb is florescent.
Carrots are bad, especially if you don't let them dry a bit! I once used carrots and in two days they all were very Ill and we're dying, and they were extremely limp almost as if they were dehydrated, but I knew this was impossible because all of the moisture accumulated on thier bodies n the carrots. I put them on dry paper towels and used a heating pad for 12+ hours and they recovered. Same will happen with peppers sometimes, but it you let the vegetables dry out a little bit till they have roughly the same amount of water as chow does, carrots, bell peppers, eggplant, and greens as well as some lettuces (no iceberg! Leafier greener lettuce varieties) all work , but at the end of the day, the only thing better than HW chow is tomato plants or other nightshade or tobacco foliage which is obviously only an option if you are breeding them. Ive always given them chow for at least 30% of thier diet because it's the only thing that keeps them in the best shape.
 
I have some mealworm larvae growing out. They take SO LONG to grow though lol. Mostly I buy crickets and mealworms.. I don't have any chow on hand or I'd get some for them. I honestly didn't expect this to work so I didn't order any. o.o I don't own a blender so I'm trying to come up with something of whats on hand for now. Thanks for the tips on carrots!
 
I have some mealworm larvae growing out. They take SO LONG to grow though lol. Mostly I buy crickets and mealworms.. I don't have any chow on hand or I'd get some for them. I honestly didn't expect this to work so I didn't order any. o.o I don't own a blender so I'm trying to come up with something of whats on hand for now. Thanks for the tips on carrots!
Potatos will fatten them up quicker but they too need to be dried a little bit first as they too have too much water for the worms to eat em fresh, that and the fact that they rot very quickly is the reason they're not used as often.chow is well worth the money though, especially if you plan on breeding them or you feed them off before they reach 2".
 
Just an update for today. The original 4 pillars are still alive and well and much more green. I'd say they have grown by about 50% or so since birth. Lots of frass being produced already. XD The adults died today sadly, but I harvested another 25 or so caterpillars and there are still lots of eggs yet to hatch! I did try to flick some eggs off into another container because moving the practically microscopic newborns is very delicate work. Only a few though as I want to see if it hurts the babies or not. I couldn't get them to easily come off the corkboard though so thats maybe a factor in how I will decorate next time.

Also, I did find a small spider living in the corkboard! It didn't really impact harvest as it only ate maybe one or two caterpillars a day, but something to be aware of.
 
And another 25 caterpillars today! It feels like I'm swimming in them now. XD The originals are now double the size of the newbies easily too! They grow so fast. XD Piper enjoys a bit of greens so I have been giving him fresh kale and then after it has dried out giving the leftovers to the pillars. Seems to be working well so far!
 
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