What wild caught food is toxic?

S

smackey

New Member
Before I would only catch grasshoppers but now that I live in new orleans there are about 4000 species of insects about. Are there any in particular I should stay away from? Yesterday I caught varius types of grasshoppers, leafbugs, dragonflies and all sorts of little nats. I got One really strange looking bug that I threw out.

Thoughts?

So I looked and there are lots of threads like this with few real answers. So maybe we should make a list of known non toxic wild insects. Lets not get into the parasites/pesticides discussion as it has been covered. I will try and keep this list on the top and edited as additons are made. I take no credit for all the additions, I will just add them as they come on for forum.

Non Toxic
Praying Mantis
Cicadas/katydids
Field Grasshoppers
RollyPollys
Dragon Flies
Leaf hoppers
8df76580.jpg

Mayflies
8ec69650.jpg

Termites
Earthworms

Toxic
Monarch butterflies
ladybugs
lubber hoppers
lubber_nymph_older_thumb.jpg

horn-worms(if eating tomato plants)
fireflies
8fd76590.jpg

Box Elder Beetles
95182620.jpg

lubber grasshoppers
assassins bugs
centipedes
hairy caterpillars
milkweed bugs
bees or wasps-Unless stingers removed.
spiders
some butterflies & moths
isopods(heavy metal accumilators which can be harmful to chams)
& pretty much any insect with RED, YELLOW, and/or BLACK (these are warning colors)
 
Monarch butterflies are toxic. So are ladybugs and lubber hoppers. Im no entomologist. Thats why I mostly feed grasshoppers and katydids and stick bugs for wild caught treats. Maybe someone with more bug knowledge will give more input.
 
wild-caught:
horn-worms
lady bugs
fireflies
lubber grasshoppers
assassins bugs
centipedes
hairy caterpillars
milkweed bugs
bees or wasps
spiders
some butterflies & moths
isopods(heavy metal accumilators which can be harmful to chams)
& pretty much any insect with RED, YELLOW, and/or BLACK (these are warning colors)

some of these bugs are poisonous/venemous
but are still fed commercially

why??........ because some of them accumilate
their toxins from their wild food source

some of these bugs wont harm your cham such as
a bee/wasp because I have read that some chameleons
can eat them without being stung

but I do not recomend collecting them under no circumstance to feed them
to feed to your cham
 
Bees are certainly non-toxic. They CAN be one of the best wild feeders to feed off. But you have to pin them first and remove the stinger. A pain in the rear but they are relished by chams.
 
I put bees in the list because of their stingers
but other than that they are ok to eat

this list was mainly for the newbies so
they dont make a mistake of feeding off these
feeders without knowing their consequences or risk

wow, I dont think I would go out
collecting bees and pull off all their stingers
to feed to my cham thats alot of work

but I bet your chams sure appreciate
it and they get fresh bee pollen in their diet :)
 
Ive caught a few by mistake mostly. I just put em in the fridge like i do my hoppers to let em go into a hibernation type mode. Thats gives you a few min to work on em before you toss em in the cage. I prefer to feed mostly hoppers. I wish I could catch more dragonflies. But those are a pain to catch. My chams love them. For those that are scared to feed wild caught. You should see a cham thats only had crickets and worms go after a hopper or a dragonfly. Its like a kid getting to go eat baskin robbins. :D
 
haha I can relate to that cause I am always excited to go to baskin robbins:D

I wish there was some species of bee that doesnt have stinger:eek:
I would really love to feed them off:cool:

lubber grasshoppers are also non-toxic if fed on a
captive diet and are one of the only hoppers who willingly breed
in captivity:eek::D
 
I was actually researching how to breed hoppers. Its gettin too dang hott down here to go out collecting. I got a good link sent to me showing how to set up a breeding tank. I just dont know where or how I'd set it up to prevent escapes. I could just see 100-200 hoppers flying all over my house. :eek:
 
So are wild caught horn worms toxic because they might have eaten a tomato plant?

We have thousands of dragonflies here and they are suprisingly easy to catch with a net.... Most of them are still to big for my little guy though.

I couldn't imagine what a colony of grasshoppers would do if it escaped in your house, it would be biblical.
 
yes hornworms are toxic if they eat tomato plant
I thin it was due to a really high concentration of Vit. A

I am no sure it was something that
just came up in my head

but i know they are toxic if they eat tomato
 
Great pics there. Im lucky Ive never caught any lubbers at the spot where I go collecting. According to the map of their range I should see some here in Texas.
 
Im not so sure its that they are poisonous. But they excrete a foul tasting foam from their thorax that would be unpleasant to say the least to our chams.
 
Lubbers?

I am very interested in this thread because I just started a breeding project with katydids, grasshoppers and giant Katydids. So far I wasnt succesful but they are hard to breed anyway. But I keep doing it.
About the lubbers, I have one grasshopper in my collection box for a week now what is the only one who has a red tummy. The legs are vertically striped. I still dont know if this is a lubber. THese lubbers have so many different appearences its hard to identify for me. The best and safest hoppers are the gray looking I guess they call them Carolina Hoppers.
Didnt I see a post from this mantis breeding guy who has a facebook page for his mantis, chameleons and other insects he breeds, he posted that he is breeding the lubbers. I didn't wanna post anything about it because I didn't wanna look stupid. maybe somebody else can check this out.
Oh and I keep my collection in 3 different containers and fishtanks on the back porch. They like it hot and in my house it would be too cool. I live in south TX.
I sweat it out every evening, when I go to feed the horses, I always go with net and cups to catch some. I am kinda obsessed with them, lol. They are such super feeders and I miss it to buy them in the petstore like I did in Germany.
They are easy to keep and not as nasty as crickets and the big ones are not as jumpy either. I wouldn't mind if they escape in my house. Its freaking me out more with crickets and roaches.
What are you guys feeding your hoppers?
 
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