Hornworm Puparia

Good thing I'd found information about rearing Hornworms online (apparently they're used in Science classes due to their short life cycle). After only a few days we discovered that they were already ready to pupate: they stopped eating and started "wandering", and we could see their hearts (a tube along the middle of their back) pulsating. I waited a day to create a container with suitable material for them go down into and form a puparium (similar to a cocoon), and by this point Boo's Hornworm had already started hardening. We stuck them both in the box and hoped for the best. Norman's worm dug down into the shredded paper and soil fairly quickly, but I had to cover Boo's up a bit. Estimated times are one week to puparium and two more weeks to moth. That was 12 days ago, so we decided to check and see if the Hornworms had done their thing. They had!

We tucked them back under the soil in our covered box. Now we have to keep checking every day to see if either emerges as a moth. I sure hope so, or the kids will be disappointed.