Breeding hornworms
- Thread starter aidenb
- Start date
i dont know anythign about these other then they taste really bad! sorry, maybe someone else will be able to help out
The hornworms/hawkmoths/sphinx moths (family Sphingidae) are a big group, but the most readily available species is the tomato hornworm. You'll need a healthy patch of tomatos (good news for you, tomatos are easy to grow) and a mesh enclosure to go around them. Are you doing this for fun or do you want a steady supply? If the latter, the necessary operation will probably be too large-scale to be worthwhile. If you just need big, soft-bodied insects, consider breding one of the larger roaches instead; they don't require a whle garden to themselves.
Sorry, I'd forgotten about the tomatine accumulation. You want to contain the whole life cycle? I don't know how much room you'll need. It will depend in part on whether the adult moths can be convinced to feed on prepared nectar solutions; otherwise your container will need to be big enough to enclose enough nectar-producing plants for all the aduts. I would guess most commercial producers just collect eggs from wild moths for each batch of larvae rather than trying to keep a continuous lineage going. If you make the foodplants available, you will probably get eggs; no need to keep the adults enclosed.