Hornworm egg update

[reptoman]

Its been around a week since I harvested the eggs from my hawkmoth cage. Thought I would post an update for those interested. I am really happy with the results so far. The food they are eating now is silkworm chow but I have horn chow on the way. First pic is the ones from a week ago that are now close to 1/2" long. The last pic is the latest batch of eggs that are hatching out now. You can see a couple of newly hatched worms among the eggs. The tiny specs are the poop of the worms that hatched and crawled up to start eating the chow. I estimate around 100 worms so far. I love free stuff!

 

[Ace]

Thats awsome haha...how long is the waiting time foe the eggs to hatch? Temps? Any thing special you've done? Just. Curious

 

[reptoman]

Thats awsome haha...how long is the waiting time foe the eggs to hatch? Temps? Any thing special you've done? Just. Curious

Hey Ace,
It took 5 days for the worms to start hatching from the time they were laid. I just put the eggs on a deli cup lid with silkchow in the bottom with the black plastic grid stuff holding the chow above. (cup upside down) This setup is placed ontop of one of my panther cages so it must stay 80 or above all day. Worms hatch and crawl right to the chow. Exactly as the hornworm cups I have bought many times but in miniature.

 

[Whatcamo]

So how did it all begin for you? Did you just buy some horn worms and let them go full cycle? What size/type of cage etc. thanks!

 

[reptoman]

So how did it all begin for you? Did you just buy some horn worms and let them go full cycle? What size/type of cage etc. thanks!

I had 8 or 9 hornworms that were too big to feed so I put them in a plastic coffee can (folgers) with around 6" of sphagnum peat moss and let them pupate. I had an empty cage roughly 16x16x24 so I put them in that with some sticks and branches. It took around a month for the moths to come out. Once I had moths I put a small tomato plant in the cage with them and I put a cheap hummingbird feeder hanging in the cage with some premade nectar from home depot. I got lucky and had at least 2 females in the group and they laid eggs everywhere. The eggs are kinda stiff so I just picked them off the branches and the screen and let them fall into a plastic cup and set them up as described in the earlier post. You can see my setup for the moths on youtube. http://youtu.be/VF0z8Sc3Rco

 

[Whatcamo]

Would you say the tomato plant was necessary or just for good measure?

 

[summoner12]

thats pretty cool! great work.

 

[reptoman]

Would you say the tomato plant was necessary or just for good measure?

I know it worked as I did it so I will repeat exactly the same next time. The moth did not lay much on the tomato plant so maybe just the plant in the immediate area had some effect to trigger breeding. Before getting a living plant I had a small piece of vine from vine ripened tomatos just in case and that could have worked on its own.


Thanks Kevin!

 

[Rottsko]

that's so cool. if i had a spare cage laying around, i'd breed these guys too. so tired of having them outgrow my chams!!!