tomato hornworms

moose35

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does anyone know if these are still available?
i used to use them as feeders but i can't find anything about them
thanks
tom
 

Mr. Mordax

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So does Carolina biological supply (www.carolina.com). I bought some eggs from them last summer and a lot more than I ordered hatched.

And I don't know how much you know about hornworms, but you'll need LOTS of food for them. And be prepared for LOTS of poop.
 

Digby Rigby

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Tomato hornworm availability.

We have been slowly starting to sell eggs in quantity. We started getting requests for them so are starting to sell eggs because it seems people arent advertising them on the boards lately. The chow is expensive. You can feed them bell peppers, small unripe green tomatos carrots and other things. Depending on what they are fed and the temps they are kept at they can get upwards of four inches and around half an ounce in two weeks:eek:
For further info you can send me a PM with your name and phone number and we will talk:D

Digby Rigby balboa28279@mypacks.net
 

AneesasMuse

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As soon as my tomato plants get going really good, my backyard will be full of these beasts! Anyone is welcome to take what my geckos and beardie won't eat. {D



Just kidding... kind of. I'm an organic gardener, but I'd still be concerned about unwanted parasites, etc.
 

siliconthoughts

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As soon as my tomato plants get going really good, my backyard will be full of these beasts! Anyone is welcome to take what my geckos and beardie won't eat. {D



Just kidding... kind of. I'm an organic gardener, but I'd still be concerned about unwanted parasites, etc.
If they feed on tomatoes they are toxic. Tomato plants have alkaloids in the leaves that are passed on to the worms. They are totally fine if fed a safe diet, but don't take them off tomato plants for use as feeders.
 

Mr. Mordax

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Anyone is welcome to take what my geckos and beardie won't eat.
If you're serious, pack 'em in ice and ship them to me! I've got a reciped I'd like to try out called "fried green tomato hornworms." The ones I reared myself were too grossly covered in poop for me to try cooking.

If they feed on tomatoes they are toxic. Tomato plants have alkaloids in the leaves that are passed on to the worms. They are totally fine if fed a safe diet, but don't take them off tomato plants for use as feeders.
I fed a mantis of mine one or two juvenile hornworms to no ill effect reared exclusively on tomato leaves. The afformentioned recipe assumes that they've been fed on those, and I doubt that David George Gordon would publish a toxic recipe.
 

bugmankeith

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Toxic to our reptiles, not to us or mantids. Mantids eat them in the wild.
 

Mr. Mordax

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Oh, ok then. Shows what I know. :8o

I guess it's a good thing my only reptile is a mammaliophage, huh? (assuming that's a real word)
 

AneesasMuse

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LOL IHeartMantids, you can have all you want and all I can catch. I'll be starting my "mater plants" in a couple weeks... I just have to sort out all my seeds and find a spot for the darn starts.

My cat wouldn't even eat those worms... I guess she's not as "thick" as I thought. :rolleyes:

siliconthoughts, thanks for letting me know about the toxicity.


All this explains the HUGE Mantid taking up residence in my Tomatoes all last summer. He was so funny, he wouldn't even let the cable guy pass on the path next to them... he was guarding his "lunch", I guess. {D
 

iturnrocks

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I found them wild on my tomatos on the 2nd floor balcony of my apartment complex.


I got about 4 of them that year. Got about 4 good tomatos too.
 

MichiganDragons

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Nice pic Dan. I bought some Hornworms locally here in MI and they were more blue than green. I wonder if there is a difference in them? My Bearded Dragons liked them. They are big juicy bugs. lol.
 

BurrowDweller

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Hornworms are naturally blue, due to a blue bile pigment in their system. When they feed on fresh living plant tissue they obtain a yellow pigment. Of course yellow and blue make green so you get a nice green hornworm. When they are raised on the artificial diet they do not get the yellow plant pigment and retain their natural blue color.
 

bugmankeith

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So if they were raised on fresh tomatoes they would turn purple?

red+blue=purple
 

AneesasMuse

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So if they were raised on fresh tomatoes they would turn purple?
The ones in my backyard ate plenty of red... yellow (lemon)... and green (zebra) tomatoes...

and ALL the ones I saw were GREEN! :mad:
 

bugmankeith

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The reason I said that is after reading this:

Hornworms are naturally blue, due to a blue bile pigment in their system. When they feed on fresh living plant tissue they obtain a yellow pigment. Of course yellow and blue make green so you get a nice green hornworm. When they are raised on the artificial diet they do not get the yellow plant pigment and retain their natural blue color.

Hornworms have blue bile pigment, if the living plant tissue they eat is red (tomato skin) Then wouldnt the red pigment of the tomato mix with the blue pigment and result in a purplish hornworm?

I know they would poop red, but if fed tomatoes for most of their life would this affect their color?
 

BurrowDweller

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They don't assimilate all plant pigments into their tissues. The reason they have red frass after eating red tomatoes is due to the fact that the red pigments are being passed right on through them. The yellow pigments they absorb, the rest just get passed on. Although it would be interesting to see a big purple caterpillar munching on a tomatoe!
 
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