Breeding Hormworms

[Lija]

thank you! excited already about the project, hope will figure out how to feed them and will go ahead, oh and i need to find hummingbird feeder somewhere which may be a problem this time of the year :lol:

how many worms would you recommend to use at the beginning?

[Pluke]

I had 20 worms ready to pupate but I lost about 8 of them because of stupid instructions, but I had 12 cacoons make it to moth and they gave me roughly 1000 eggs. I had a lot of casualties because I didn't realize how many of the little worms would wander off from the food.. I had raised them in sterlite shoeboxes which is fine when they're bigger, but the babies aren't the most intelligent thing out there and a lot would wander away without ever finding the food.. or just die because they'd just sit there and walk in circles. Learn from my terrible experience and just do yourself and the worms a favor, when you have eggs put them in a cup with food. That way they only have one way to go.. UP TO THE FOOD.

[Lija]

is there is a way to prevent eggs from hatching? fridge may be? this way it would be possible not to hatch they all at once.

[Pluke]

Unfortunately no.. If that was possible I'd have them on hand at all times, haha. You just gotta raise them all at once and sell off extras. Really no other option, I really wish you could freeze them. You can slow them worms growth down once they're an inch or two by putting them in the fridge and taking them out, 1 day in 1 day out.. some people do 2 day in.

[Lija]

well.... 1000 worms.... at once..... oh well, still should be interesting to see.

[Lija]

will try this recipe, cos shipping from GLH is 30$ minimum.

"A Homemade Recipe for Manduca Diet

We have developed a diet composed of ingredients that are readily available in a large supermarket. Diet preparation requires only a kitchen blender and a microwave oven. The finished diet, having the consistency of tofu, can be easily sliced into any shape or size and the quality of the diet can be modified by adding or subtracting various chemical components.

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."

[MOTHRA49]

I raise silkworms and they are the sweetest creatures. They do no damage and you can feed them off or let them cocoon and feed off the moths after they lay eggs.
Chow available year round. You just need to keep them warm and clean.