Breeding Hornworms, how to?

So after seeing the way my beardeds love hornworms of all sizes and how fast they grow i am very curious as to breeding them at home. i have read some online but most of which i have come across are kind of random. one person puts the adult moths in a closed paper bags and harvests the eggs after the adults die. another builds a full set up with heat and a natural photo period as well as a live tomato plant to lay eggs on.

i know that the tomato plant holds toxins that can kill my dragons so i am very wary about using any type of plant that the eggs might hatch on that will cause them to be toxic to my dragons. at the same time i am certain that with care the moths, more so the males, will be able to live longer and produce more offspring over time.

I have no problems buying food and i have found a site that told me how to make food at home with things that i can buy at, say, walmart.

here is one recipe that i have found,

1 cup (100 g) of non-toasted wheat germ (Bobs Red Mill, Milwaukie, OR)
1/3 cup (25 g) of nonfat dry milk (Sanalac, Fullerton, CA)
4 tablespoons of agar (generic)
1 teaspoon pure raw flaxseed oil (nonboiled, Sunnyside Corp., Wheeling IL)
1/2 tablespoon nutritional flake yeast (generic)
1 vitamin C tablet (1000 mg) (generic)
2 vitamin B tablets (generic)
2 multivitamin tablets (generic)
1 tablespoon of table sugar (generic)
2 1/2 cups water

1. Place vitamin tablets in blender and reduce to a powder. To this powder, add the wheat germ, powdered milk, and sugar and blend until the dry components are well-mixed.
2. Remove the dry mix from the blender and add 2.5 cups of boiling water. While mixing at low speed, add the agar. Be careful to replace the lid on the blender before turning it on. Blend for one minute and then add the dry mix and continue to mix.
3. Add the linseed oil and increase blender speed. You may need to manually blend the diet while the blender is running. The diet gets rather viscous at this point.
4. After blending for about 5 minutes, add the nutritional yeast flakes and continue blending for another minute. Components in the yeast are heat labile, thus, yeast is added as late as possible.
5. Once the diet is thoroughly mixed, pour it into a plastic tray that has a sealable airtight lid. The diet will solidify and remain usable for about 7 to 10 days if kept refrigerated."

i guess my biggest question is besides buying dry hornworm chow, again i have no prob doing that, a recipe that can be easier to find ingredients for and a breeding box... i mean..

are there any other hornworm chow recipes that i can make besides the one above and what would you recommend for a breeding box?

i can find supplies and make them at home as well as the rearing cups for hornworms. i have no problem making things, it is a hobby of mine really.

i am just looking for what everyone recommends as to how i can breed them as well as other hornworm breeders.

thanks for looking and i am looking forward to any help you care to give.

Hey Ryoko,

I've made an attempt an breeding these guys, and was mostly successful until a storm came through and blew the entire setup across the yard (I was rearing them outside).

I'll try my best to recall precisely what I did, it's been several years and I've given up breeding silkworms and hornworms since discovering roaches as a staple feeder; I wish I could provide more precise details for you but my memory is quite fuzzy. I have no recollection of time frames, etc that occur between larvae-pupation-adulthood-laying-hatching.

I purchased a few worms, raised them up to adult size, and if I recall...they undergo a sort of "wandering" phase when they are ready to pupate... they may even do something where they shrink in size and change coloration slightly...I'm not sure if I'm mixing them up with silkworms or just imaging things though LOL! TI took large cups/containers and filled them with about 6" of soil (I used a mix of coir and peat moss), then placed the larvae into the cups. They burrow into the soil in order to pupate.

After X amount of time (sorry, which I could give you exact numbers) I dug out the pupae and placed them in a container that had some soil on the bottom. This container was then placed into a 38 gallon reptarium, which is where the adult moths live. I do recall setting a light on a timer for the worms and pupae using a small lamp to demonstrate a photoperiod - although I don't remember how many hours I set it for.

After X amount of time, the adult moths emerge from the pupae... you MUST have a large vertical surface for the moths to crawl up on in order to fill their wings. If they're wings dry before properly forming, the moth will be unable to fly, and therefore unable to breed and survive. Be sure that the moths have direct access to the side of the enclosure or something climb-able with adequate height and width near the pupae for the moth to climb onto and begin filling its wings out.

You will actually need to purchase a small Tomato or Pepper plant for the eggs to be laid on - the moths will only lay their eggs on these plants knowing that this is what the larvae thrive on. While the leaves are Toxic for the worms to consume when fed to herps, its OK to use the plant for laying purposes. You'll remove the eggs before they hatch, so the worms' first meal and all of those thereafter is safe chow.

I got to the point where I had moths flying around in the reptatium and having just laid eggs on the leaves of a tomato plant. The eggs are very small, and green in coloration. Just before I had the opportunity to harvest the eggs, a storm came through and blew my reptarium across the yard, essentially ruining and killing everything... lol

I'm really sorry that I can't be of more help, but saw this thread unanswered and figured I'd share a brief $0.02. If I recall correctly, I utilized a couple of sites for information on breeding - one was "The Manduca Project" and I'll try to dig through my old emails to find the other site and any conversations shared with butterfly and moth enthusiasts regarding the breeding of these guys.

Also, I'm not familiar with Chow recipes, but that recipe seems legitimate in that I've heard agar is a base in most of those on the market. I recall someone mentioning a book that had a recipe in it on an invert forum a few years back... I'll see what I can do about finding that for you = )

Hopefully someone can fill in the details for ya! I emailed a number of people who sell moth and butterfly eggs/larvae in order to obtain the information I used to begin breeding, most of them were quite happy to answer my questions and talk 'bugs' with

thanks a lot, i have hatched eggs and raised them to feed out but i haven't bred them.

looked around and found that many people recommend that and an alternative to placing a live plant in there. instead one person said they took the leaves off a live plant and pinned or taped them to the outside of the enclosure separated only by paper towel. that way the eggs would show up more clearly and so that there is less risk of eggs hatching on the plant. i guess the sent of the plant would still be there and would entice the moths to lay near the leaves.

i also came across sexing the pupae so that i can make sure i have a fairly good mix to ensure eggs.

i found times tables and book marked a few pages.

lol, almost every site i came across recommended "The Manduca Project".

i am going to try this when my adults are sleeping off this year and i only have a few to feed so i shouldn't need too many.

my beardies like roaches as well but i want to make sure they get a variety of food. most of them have almost completely gone off crix. they will eat it every now and then but not as readily as roaches, worms, or cats.

anyways, thanks again for coming by and taking the time! i really appreciate it!

No problem

Best of luck to you with your breeding efforts! I guess there must be a lot more info out there nowadays then there was when I tried giving this a go... its probably been 6 years or so. That paper towel tactic for the eggs sounds ingenius lol!