# food alternatives: hornworms?



## pancho64 (Jan 6, 2006)

hey does anyone have any experiance feeding hornworms to their Ts? i have a chaco golden knee at the moment and am expecting a king baboon tomorow so i will have 2 big eaters. i was wondering if getting some of these would be worth it? are they nutritional? do Ts go for them? thanx


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## aaronrefalo (Jan 6, 2006)

Personally i would say no on feeding hornworms to a tarantula..probably you will get them from the wild....and if some parasite would be present on the hornworm?....why don't you feed roaches?...

Aaron


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## psionix (Jan 6, 2006)

since hornworms only eat leaves from plants from the solanaceae family (deadly nightshade, tobacco, tomato, et cetera) which are loaded with alkaloidal glucosides they are probably toxic.


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## GoTerps (Jan 6, 2006)

I have fed CB hornworms to my spiders on many occassions with great results.  I actually plan to use them more and more in the future when I have the time to get a CB project going.

As mentioned, don't feed WC hornworms... they need to be raised on an artificial chow.

Here as some links to some recipes:
Purdue Entomology Dept. Hornworm Recipe (pdf)
The Manduca Project
UW Madison diet

Another infomative page... HERE


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## danread (Jan 6, 2006)

As Eric said, as long as they are reared on an artificial diet, there is no reason why they wouldn't be good feeders.

Cheers,

Reactions: Disagree 1


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## MischiefManaged (Jan 6, 2006)

I have also been feeding my tarantulas hornworms when available, however they have all been purchased from a reputable farmer and are raised on home-made chow. I would DEFINITELY avoid wild caught insects, no matter what type, but I am sure you already knew that.  Also, I have had success offering frozen/thawed pink mice with tongs. They seem to take it readily.  

Good luck with that KB . . it will certainly keep you on your toes!


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## wolfpak (Jan 6, 2006)

what's an hornworm?


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## GoTerps (Jan 6, 2006)

> what's an hornworm?


It's the larval stage of _Manduca sexta_ (or _Manduca quinquemaculata_).... sometimes called Sphinx or Hawk moths.

_M. sexta_ (sexta=six-fold) will have six abdominal stripes on the adult moth.

_M. quinquemaculata_ (quinquemaculata=five-spotted) will have five abdominal spots or stripes on the adult moth.


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## GailC (Jan 6, 2006)

You can also get hornworms and chow from mulberryfarms.com


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## fscorpion (Jan 6, 2006)

Well, its not a worm then, its a caterpillar. If that is what you call a "hornworm" then we are talking about the Sphingidae family which consists or really many species. This mentioned species (Manduca sexta) do feed on the Solanaceae family (amoung other families) and there are several other species that feen on poisonous plants (like nerium oleander) but there are much more species that are harmless and feed on oak or birch...and many other non poisonous plants...if you know the exact name of the species I can tell you the foodplant, or maybe you can post a pic but including the adult (the moth). If you are not sure, you better avoid it...


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## Jmadson13 (Jan 7, 2006)

I personally think Captive bred cultures of these guys are a wonderful supplement to my Invertebrates' diets. I get them cultured from a local exotics store, he informs me that the particular larva that he sells are fed on Tomatoe plants and I've yet to see a detrimental effect to feeding these plump little feasts.


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