Hornworm Breeding
here i will go in depth about how to raise and breed horn worms, tips, tricks, and helpful links.
this is just a ROUGH DRAFT right now. if you would like to critique and or correct anything please email me (email address on home page)
http://www.greatlakeshornworm.com/
e-mail him for specially bulk order pricing IE:6 or more cups
horn worms are a great diet for frilled dragons. in the wild, frilled dragons mostly eat larva and soft bodied grub, this makes up a large portion of their diet. though dubia roaches are great, they are hard bodied and dont offer as much hydration as horn worms offer.
horn worms can be high maintenance to keep and raise.
horn worms hatch from eggs, grow fast and in about 2 weeks or less they being to pupate (turn into a cocoon) they pupate for about 20-30 days and emerge as "hawk moths" the giant moths that can have a wing span of as much as 4-6 inches.
horn worm are pest species, they can destroy tomato plants and tobacco plants and other plants in the same family. the moths mate and lay their eggs on and around tomato plants (or that of the same family) and the eggs hatch in about 2-3 days.
since there is no way to suspend the growth of the horn worm, pupa, moth or eggs they are high maintenance and you must run on their scheduled and keep up with them.
this site will explain that
http://www.manducaproject.com/
they eat artificial diets, you can make your own but i dont recommend it home made food often spoils quickly and grows mold fast.
food you can buy from GLH or any Repashy dealer, repashy is the brand name. bug burger is the product.
bug burger is made in the same way that GLH food is made.
great lake hornworms uses an agar agar based food. agar agar is made from sea weed. it acts almost exactly like gelatin, gelatin desolves in water, is cooked and once it cools it turns into a jello. agar agar is about the same only, it does not melt at room temperature. agar agar is perfect for bug food because of this. it holds it shape it holds food in suspension and its extremely easy to work with. repashy's bug burger is sold in a powder form only. glh food is sold either wet (already made) or dry and you can make it. when you order "horn worm cups" they already come with food inside the cup. if ordering 6 cups i recomend ordering food too, the food will run out in those cups if the worms start getting big they eat SO much.
mulberry farms also sells horn worms but they do not feed their horn worms the same diet. they feed them mulberry food. i do not recommend mulberry farms' horn worms for this reason . mulberry food is made from mulberry leaves, its basically a diet just for silk worms, since silk worms wont eat artificial diets or anything else. so they simply just offer it to the horn worms. what a bad idea!!!!! mulberry food is high in Vitamin K and this can be bad if feeding it to frilled dragons on a daily basis. to much of one thing is a bad idea.
so to re-cap. horn worms hatch out of eggs after 2-3 days. worms grow and eat alot and poop alot for about 2 weeks. after 2 weeks they walk around "wander" for 3-5 days, then they pupate for about 20-30 days. they emerge as moths and lay eggs for 2-3 days and die. after 2-3 days eggs hatch. see what i mean by trying to keep up with them?
i hope this information is enough, if you have any questions just email me and i can answer them to the best of my knowledge or do further research and find an answer for you.
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use plastic mesh found in the roofing section, this mesh is ment to keep leaves out of rain gutters
i use 3oz cups turned upside down hot glued to the mesh , this keeps the mesh elevated so the poop can drop down
use "shoe box" containers found at most grocery stores for 1$ in the home section