Hornworms

[Ian]

Does anyone know if hornworms have a potentially damaging bite?

I'm expecting my first shipment of them today or tomorrow, and decided to do a little internet research before I offer them to anyone.

I've read a couple accounts of a worm potentially biting an eye and causing injury, and even getting hooked in a chameleon's throat.

I'm not really interested in cutting them in half or trying to remove mandibles, so I was wondering if anyone has any experience, good or bad, with using them as live feeders.
(I'm getting the smaller ones.)

I will, hopefully, be feeding them to:
White's Tree Frog
Pixie Frog (depending on size...it's a baby)

and I know this is a frog forum but...

Fat Tailed Gecko
Crested Gecko
Fire Belly Toads
Box Turtles

Any info is appreciated!

Thanks,

Ian

[ejh805]

I've fed my pixie probably around 100 hornworms and have never had an issue. No biting, pinching or anything of the sort.
I doubt you'll have any problems

[Lija]

Ian.... pixie will LOVE them and will eat faster then they could do anything, cresties will hate it, but then my adults won't go for anything moving and babies need fast moving prey like crickets. just make sure you have the smallest size of them.

[Ian]

Ian.... pixie will LOVE them and will eat faster then they could do anything, cresties will hate it, but then my adults won't go for anything moving and babies need fast moving prey like crickets. just make sure you have the smallest size of them.

This is definitely off-topic for a frog forum but...

My crested gecko seems to only like live food and bananas.

As far as I can tell he doesn't touch the repashy. I've gotten up at all hours of the night to try and see him eat it. My thought with the hornworm is I could put it in a dish of repashy food and he could perhaps enjoy both.

Hornworms for everyone!
Maybe I'll grab one and see if I can get it to bite me to gauge the risk.

Thanks

-Ian

[JeffreH]

I found most crested geckos aren't all that fond of hornworms or silkworms... they are very visually stimulated geckos and these larvae just don't cut it to trigger a solid feeding response. The jaw strength of crested geckos is pretty weak in comparison to similar sized geckos, and they have difficulty with larger instar silkworms and hornworms even though they are a softer bodied prey item. You'll find that they will struggle with the larvae that are even slightly too large, almost like a balloon that they cannot 'pop.'

Repashy takes some patience sometimes - it can take some geckos a while to get used to it and very young individuals may only take a couple of licks here and there. When raised on the stuff, they continue to feed on it like candy, but when offering other food items they can get picky on you. If you want them to eat the repashy CGD exclusively, you'll have to cut fruit out of the diet and go with the cold turkey method. I still like to feed insects once a week or so, and will offer a lick of fruit here or there as a sort of treat after handling or the like, but CGD should be the base, staple diet.

For hornworms: You won't have to worry about anything bite-wise until the largest instars, I believe the 4th and 5th instars are your only real threat, but these would likely be too large for most of the herps you've listed anyway (except the turtles). Even still, the mandibles are probably are only slightly more formidable than a superworm's, but hornworms are quite passive and reluctant to bite anyway. I've never had an issue feeding them to my herps.

And just a warning, these guys grow FAST and eat obscene amounts of food. You may need to throw them in the butter container of your refrigerator for a couple of days to slow their growth and keep them at a size that all of your herps can eat.

[demon amphibians]

super worms and meal worms are the ones with a bad rep about chewing on pets. I have even had them bite me several times. But i have never had a horn worm attempt it.