horn worm pupae

[ijmccollum]

Since I have some hornworms that went pupal I have been trying to find info on how they emerge. According to some the moths will sip nector, mate with in days, females will lay only once, and adult moths generally live a week.

Anyone have experience with this and would like to share?

 

[ijmccollum]

okay, I am going to try to resurrect this post https://www.chameleonforums.com/raising-hornworms-16075/
to see if anyone has had any success.

I am thinking of trying hummingbird nector in a feeder and coffee filter substrate for egg laying.

 

[draetish]

I did not have success with this endeavor. The moths would emerge and their wings would not expand and died. I increased the misting once they emerged to keep them wet and it helped. I never had more than one moth at a time and just fed them off.

 

[ijmccollum]

well, that's disappointing -- same thing happened with my silkies. will let you know what happens with the hornworms.

 

[esantana]

I have done it with silkworms not hormworms. I do not feed them, the sikworms mate and I feed them to the chams after they lay the eggs.
I just let the chams eat the hornworms. https://www.chameleonforums.com/stalking-eating-hornworm-moth-45279/

 

[radstusky]

I did have some success, see this post: https://www.chameleonforums.com/baby-hornworms-43027/

However, I was fairly lucky I think. I did offer the adults sugar water, but never really saw them drink. I had 5 adults, and I think only one was female. They emerged at different times, and I didn't keep track of which one was the female. I put them in a butterfly cage and low and behold one morning we noticed all of these babies in there. I think I ended up saving around 40 of them! I didn't have hornworm chow so I fed them the silkworm chow which they ate without problem. They're all gone now, but not a bad return on an original purchase of one pod of worms. Maybe I should buy some more!

Good luck!

Also the manduca project website is very helpful.

 

[ijmccollum]

I did have some success, see this post: https://www.chameleonforums.com/baby-hornworms-43027/

However, I was fairly lucky I think. I did offer the adults sugar water, but never really saw them drink. I had 5 adults, and I think only one was female. They emerged at different times, and I didn't keep track of which one was the female. I put them in a butterfly cage and low and behold one morning we noticed all of these babies in there. I think I ended up saving around 40 of them! I didn't have hornworm chow so I fed them the silkworm chow which they ate without problem. They're all gone now, but not a bad return on an original purchase of one pod of worms. Maybe I should buy some more!

Good luck!

Also the manduca project website is very helpful.

Thanks, I always have a few left over -- they grow quite large almost overnight -- so I thought I would give it a try. Will take a look at the manduca project, thanks.