Hornworm Guidelines

[Elizabeth Freer]

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Click: Hornworm Care Guidelines

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A separate group's member added this caution on 18 September 2019:
“Make sure not to feed hornworms while your gecko is on reptile carpet. The hornworm was able to grab hold and cause our gecko to gag it back up, because he couldn’t swallow it. That hornworm was strangling him. I rushed and got the worm out. He wouldn’t eat anymore after that, poor fellow. He may now. I got rid of the reptile carpet too. But felt so sorry for him. He loved them hornworms.”

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Buy very small hornworms. They will sometimes mushroom in size overnight. Keep them at room temperature (70*F; 21.1*C) until they grow some. Then transfer them to either a Playmate picnic cooler or a wine cooler set at about 55*F (12.8*C). A basement may also be cool enough.

Timberline now sells hornworms in a 4-pack for $10 at PetCo.

In January 2015 a hornworm breeder told me that 50*F/10.0*C is too cold, that 50*F makes the hornworm food too tough for the youngest hornworms.

Hornworm size fed: ~1.5-2 inches (~4-5 cm) to my 70ish gram/9 inch female leopard gecko.

• Approximate nutritional content of hornworms (source Mulberry Farms)
  • Protein: 9%
  • Fat: 3%
  • Calcium: 46.4mg/100mg
  • Calcium : phosphorus ratio is 1:3. That ratio is quite low compared to other worms! [Phosphorus impairs calcium absorption. Serve plain or lightly dust hornworms with plain calcium carbonate to rebalance the calcium and phosphorus even further.]
  • Moisture: 85%

Tobacco hornworms (Manduca sexta) are teal or green soft-bodied worms. They grow rapidly when kept at normal room temperatures. They are high in calcium. French hornworms go by: vers de goliath. These worms look like mini turquoise candy canes .

Tips
When kept by the following method, it's easy to keep hornworms alive (and of edible size for many leopard geckos) for 4+ weeks. Make sure the company includes enough food. Keep extra food in the cooler with the hornworms, NOT in the refrigerator. IF you keep the food in the refrigerator, the food will get too hard for hornworms to eat.

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[Photo credit to GU's lbanta]

• Hornworms grow rapidly when kept at normal room temperatures!
• When the hornworms nearly reach a good size for feeding, place them (in container) into a picnic cooler or wine cooler to lessen rapid growth.
• Add 1 solid ice pack replaced 2x daily......every 12 hours.
• Keep the temperature inside the cooler ~55*F (12.8*C).
• Turn the hornworm container upside down so that their food is on the top and the lid is the new "base".
• Elevate the hornworm container off the ground with egg flats or a couple pencils to give your hornworms AIR.
• Don't let the hornworm container touch the ice pack.
• Empty the hornworm poop once a day.
• Serve the hornworms plain at first. Then try very lightly dusting them with pure precipitated calcium carbonate (without vitamin D3) to further balance their calcium-to-phosphorus ratio.
• Should a hornworm get mangled, clean up its green juice right away. The green "juice" is difficult to remove when dry.

For more hornworm info:
Mulberry Farms
Great Lakes Hornworm Products
Hornworms - Rainbow Mealworms

FAQ
Great Lakes Hornworm | America's Finest Source For Insects
Are these the things I see on my tomato plant?
Yes, but you cannot feed the hornworms on your tomato plants to your animals. Hornworms that eat tomato plants have toxins in their bodies that will kill your animals!


Feedback on Hornworms

• from my female leopard gecko Cha:
• from my mature crestie George: ===> no interest in hornworms (accustomed to crickets)

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For additional hornworm details click: 05DecCaruthers Thanks to Hilde

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Keeping Hornworms
"Best to purchase a wine cooler.

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"Brand is Wine Enthusiast and costs $65 in Nov 2012. It's really quiet. Measures 20 inches front to back. 16" from side to side, and 14" from floor to top. You can see the temp on the front and can lower or raise the temp from the front. Mine is a 12 bottle, but it's a little cube.

"Set to 55*F to keep your hornworms alive till feeding. Being kept at 55*F really slows their growth!!!

"I take the racks out and lay the horn cups on their sides. Nice investment...and you should find some good deals at this time of year.

"This way hornworms can be kept at the proper temperature for your leopard gecko or other interested geckos. Got a batch of eggs and let them hatch then put them in. It works great for us folks who only have 1 lizard...(or maybe 2 someday) that want to keep food longer so it can be used up.

"Yes, the upfront cost is a bit, but the longterm ease and comfort is fabulous! If you are going to take care of lizards correctly and you need to keep hornworms around as a food source, then you need to the invest in a wine chiller. It is so comforting to know they are always at the correct temp and not growing really really fast!" [Thanks to Zena Reitano-Nesting, leo Prince Ali's mom.]

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..Ziggy..
JessJohnson87's leo


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.......Rex.............Xena......
XoVictoryXo's leos

[XoVictoryXo]

These are my new fave feeder. They lasted forever! and were a hit with Rex and Xena!
Might I mention their poop is HUGE like rabbit poop lol

[Elizabeth Freer]

Sources

• Coastal Silkworms click: Coastal Silkworms - Bombyx Mori Silkworms
• Great Lakes Hornworm click: Great Lakes Hornworm | America's Finest Source For Insects
• LindasGoneBuggie click: YOUR BUGGIE HEADQUARTERS
• Mulberry Farms click: http://www.mulberryfarms.com/

[Elizabeth Freer]

Click: Hornworm Experiment.

[Elizabeth Freer]

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Click: https://vegetableipm.tamu.edu/chewin...acco-hornworm/

Manduca sexta = tobacco hornworms (Linnaeus)

Manduca quinquemaculata = tomato hornworms (Haworth)

Characteristics

• adults are large, fast-flying, hawk moths with a 5-inch wingspan
• sometimes mistaken for hummingbirds
• large larvae are similar with seven diagonal light stripes on the tobacco hornworm
• eight curved stripes on the tomato hornworm

Damage

• larvae feed voraciously on tomato and pepper foliage