Hornworms, need advice

[suzuki4life]

Just ordered some hornworms, 2 habitat cups of smalls (24+ ea) and 50 eggs+ 1/2 lb of dry food...

I use a mini fridge converted to incubator for my eggs, but no eggs at this time...

figuring I can set the incubator at 82 and put the worms and eggs in there...

good idea or not? Wondering if the humidity will be okay with the cups alone in the incubator or they actually need to be out in free air situation...

 

[romanfj]

I believe supers do fine at 50% humidity, give or take a bit. In most regions of the country, that is the average humidity level in the air. It's drier in the deserts and wetter close to the Great Lakes, southern swamps and Washington state. Depends on where you live.

As for needing air, if you open the door to the fridge once a day (probably once a week, to tell the truth), the eggs or larvae will get enough fresh air exchange. The larvae aren't respiring enough, nor will you have enough of them, to consume 19 cubic feet of air in a day. As a comparison, I know of snake breeders who incubate eggs in sealed Tupperware containers, opening them once daily to let in fresh air, and this is for a clutch of 25 developing snakes. Snakes use a lot more O2 than superworms.

Frank

 

[romanfj]

Duh I meant hornworms, not superworms!

Frank

 

[1sttimebeardiemom]

I think Great Lakes Hornworms tells you what you need to know on their site...