Raising your own live feed?

[Pet Duck Boy]

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Nice hornworms, I don't have any tomatoes though.

 

[daze333]

What Are Those???????

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

Tomato hornworms, it's what I said in my above post. Caterpillar of a moth pretty much.

 

[daze333]

For some reason your post didn't show up until I entered my post. Then I saw them at the same time. Oh well.
I googled growing hornworms and all I could find was how to get rid of them! How do you grow them?

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

Yes, they are hornworms, the juvenile of a very large moth. I was somewhat joking that I was getting good at growing them; they do just fine on their own.

I collect most of them from my chili and sweet pepper plants and a plant we have here called devil's claw. I do get some on tomatoes occasionally, but mostly the peppers. Most of my chooks go crazy when they see I have them. Oddly enough, my BO's don't care for them. I was marveling how much protein they've gotten over the summer just from those alone.

 

[geepy]

I raise mealworms and collards. My girls (and guys) go crazy for collards. They free range but when they see me head for the garden they go crazy. I also planted sunflowers these year, they run the squirrels off to get them. LOL

 

[Pet Duck Boy]

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Their host plant is all you need, I looked it up and plants of the night shade family (peppers, egg plants, tomatoes) are a favorite. So I'm assuming if you get a good group of those up, and the moths are in your area, you should get the hornworms soon.

 

[franklinchickens]

We get most of our worms (and the soldier flies) from our compost pile. We've got a pretty good size set up made of pallets with 2 sections for compost. We just scoop out a bucket full and there's a ton of stuff in there the chickens like - especially worms.

 

[GardenerGal]

My ducks would gobble up those hornworms in a nano-second.

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[Gallo del Cielo]

Quote:
Their host plant is all you need, I looked it up and plants of the night shade family (peppers, egg plants, tomatoes) are a favorite. So I'm assuming if you get a good group of those up, and the moths are in your area, you should get the hornworms soon.

That's right Pet Duck Boy!