Tobacco Hornworm - Manduca sexta - Manduca sexta

Moved

… Teá Montagna, 19 September, 2016 - 1:21pm

Moved

… john and jane balaban, 22 August, 2016 - 3:31pm

I've done that

I had one on a plant while my family was in the process of relocating to a different state (1100 miles away). It was still in caterpillar form, on a potted tomato plant when we left. I put the planted pot in a plastic garbage container, and then put a garbage bag over the whole thing.

When we unloaded, I took it down to the basement and removed the garbage bag. I no longer saw the caterpillar, so it probably had already moved under the dirt to pupate. This was in August.

By late September, I was guessing that the stress had maybe been too much for it, but I still held out hope. Then one day in October, I was in the basement with my camera taking pictures of something (the heater unit I believe). I all of the sudden thought about looking around to see if I could see the moth. I had my camera too, so I thought "this would be a great time". Sure enough, there was a large dark moth on the wall. I got a few pictures of it. The whole scene was quite a bit like I had imagined; it just took longer than I was expecting.

I had previously never seen the adult (moth), so it was a bit eery to finally bring it out of "hiding". There are many moths that I'd describe as beautiful, but frankly, I wouldn't include this one. Good luck with yours though.

… jross12, 22 August, 2016 - 12:11pm

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

Yes, I'm afraid "beautiful" may be a relative term when referring to the Carolina Sphinx Moth! Some of them even look downright sinister.

Your experience gives me hope--the poor fellow seems a bit confused about what he/she is in the mood for. The caterpillar buried himself as if he were ready to pupate, but then popped back out and ate a little more. He doesn't seem to be eating as much, but I don't know if that's because he doesn't need as much, or if it's because I've switched him to an assortment of brugmansia, mulberry leaves, and sliced red bell peppers as opposed to the tomato plant leaves he was originally munching on. He had buried himself again this morning, so we'll see how things progress.

I've placed the container with dirt within a larger, net butterfly pavilion, so if/when the moth emerges, we'll know.

… ewade, 22 August, 2016 - 1:33pm

Interesting

That's interesting about he/she going into the soil, only to come back up again. Maybe it isn't interested in those leaves / food sources. How about tomato leaves? They seem to love those. Did you get a picture of it before it went under again? I'm curious what they look like just before pupating. Maybe an online search...

It sounds like you have a good and ideal setup for when it emerges. Please update us as to how long it takes. I'm guessing about 6-8 weeks, but that was also going from a warm humid climate to a cooler drier climate. Maybe the process got slowed down.

… jross12, 22 August, 2016 - 2:56pm

Tomato leaves

If the caterpillar is still out of the soil when I get home from work, I'll definitely grab a few tomato leaves. I stole the caterpillar from my friend's residence, so I don't have the tomato leaves on hand here, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind me snagging a few from his garden!

I'll certainly take pictures throughout. His appearance was the same when he emerged from the soil, so no changes so far.

… ewade, 22 August, 2016 - 5:02pm