Hornworm food substitute?

[FFSTRescue]

I just received some hornworms from GLH, but they forgot the food, and they said they won't ship it out until next week now, and the containers don't have much food that have the live worms in, not enough to last until next week anyway, and the eggs I ordered have hatched and I can't wait until next Thursday to receive the food, they will run out by then. I have no food on hand, I was really expecting that hornworm food, so does anyone have any suggestions? Can I put them in the fridge to slow down their consumption rate, or will that kill them? I saw some threads for some recipes, but does anyone have any suggestions for things that won't take 2 hours to make? I greatly appreciate it, thanks!

 

[Clifford]

sweet red bell peppers (buy organic, as most regular store bought ones have lots of pesticides still on/in them).

also I've heard they will eat silkworm chow, so maybe they would also eat mulberry leaves or dandelion leaves or romaine?

 

[ChLoBo921]

I have a few hornworms now also and besides using the mulberry chow that I already had, I put a few tomatoes in their container and they seem to be fine with eating that.
http://www.manducaproject.com/
That site is one that I used to find some information on the worms, so try looking there to see if they have anything on food.

 

[Ellron]

I have a few hornworms now also and besides using the mulberry chow that I already had, I put a few tomatoes in their container and they seem to be fine with eating that.
http://www.manducaproject.com/
That site is one that I used to find some information on the worms, so try looking there to see if they have anything on food.

GLH says not to feed wild caught hornworms because of their diet.
Quote " A: Yes, but you can not feed the ones that were on your tomato plant to your animals because worms that eat the tomato plant have toxins in their body from the plant that will kill your animals. Same thing goes if you find these worms anywhere else in the wild. DO NOT FEED WILD CAUGHT TOMATO WORMS...."
I just wanted to say that it might not be a good idea to feed tomatoes in case they are toxic.

 

[Syn]

GLH says not to feed wild caught hornworms because of their diet.
Quote " A: Yes, but you can not feed the ones that were on your tomato plant to your animals because worms that eat the tomato plant have toxins in their body from the plant that will kill your animals. Same thing goes if you find these worms anywhere else in the wild. DO NOT FEED WILD CAUGHT TOMATO WORMS...."
I just wanted to say that it might not be a good idea to feed tomatoes in case they are toxic.

I would assume you could feed them after changing their diet.. but I don't recall from immediate memory any posts of doing this. So don't quote me on it and do your research.

It's really unfortunate that GLH had messed up your order.. hopefully they will try to make things right for any worms you lose in the process of finding a temporary substitute.

 

[FFSTRescue]

Mistakes happen and GLH is aways great about making up for mistakes, though they rarely happen with them. I need to be better about keeping food on hand

 

[Lizardlover]

GLH says not to feed wild caught hornworms because of their diet.
Quote " A: Yes, but you can not feed the ones that were on your tomato plant to your animals because worms that eat the tomato plant have toxins in their body from the plant that will kill your animals. Same thing goes if you find these worms anywhere else in the wild. DO NOT FEED WILD CAUGHT TOMATO WORMS...."
I just wanted to say that it might not be a good idea to feed tomatoes in case they are toxic.

The tomato itself is not toxic, people use them as substitutes all the time.

 

[Clifford]

Right, its the tomatoe plant leaves (not the fruit) that are toxic

 

[Dro B]

The whole thing about them bieng poisonous is extremely exaggerated. Some of the most knowledgeable cham people on this site feed thier chams the ones they find on tomatoes(when they find them, they don't use them as a staple), wild reptiles eat them, birds, which eat them as often as possible, eat worms that are almost 40% thier bodyweight sometimes and have absolutely no problems because of it. I'm not saying to use them, there's no reason to risk it and I'd think twice about buying an animal from someone who does feed them, but the idea that the caterpillars "store" the poison in thier bodies and are going to drop dead or even get sick from eating a worm or two is obsurd and feeding wild worms chow or another vegetable for 24 hours will purge whatever they were eating out of thier system. A lot of places that breed hornworms for sale will let the hatchlings feed on tomato leaves the first few days to get them growing quickly.

 

[Dro B]

I just received some hornworms from GLH, but they forgot the food, and they said they won't ship it out until next week now, and the containers don't have much food that have the live worms in, not enough to last until next week anyway, and the eggs I ordered have hatched and I can't wait until next Thursday to receive the food, they will run out by then. I have no food on hand, I was really expecting that hornworm food, so does anyone have any suggestions? Can I put them in the fridge to slow down their consumption rate, or will that kill them? I saw some threads for some recipes, but does anyone have any suggestions for things that won't take 2 hours to make? I greatly appreciate it, thanks!

I'm in WI and even though it's snowed and been in the 30's for some time now dandelions are still alive if you know how to identify them, sweet potatos work, eggplant, any type of pepper (even ghost chilis!), tomatos, green tomatos if possible, mulberry leaves and silkworms chow both work but they don't like the chow as much as other foods. One thing about vegetables is you have to use ventilated containers and wipe out the exess moisture or they will crawl into water droplets and drown, they don't have the waterproof hairs that baby silkworms do and will die fairly quickly if this happens.

 

[Matt Vanilla Gorilla]

Mix weet germ and nutritional yeast 50/50. Add water to get it to a similar consistency as apple sauce. Add enough Agar powder to it to cause it to gell once it cools down. Carefully bring it to a boil wile string to prefect the bottom from burning. Add a pinch of methyl paraben (careful not to inhale the dust - it is poisonous - but you need it in the mix to prevent it from molding/rotting) once this stuff has cooled down to room temp you can cut off chunks and feed it to the worms.