Does anyone have any ideas on saving our tobacco hornworm moths? In November, indoors? We've been told by a butterfly expert that they WON'T eat indoors, and they don't seem to be eating, despite: * a hummingbird feeder, with official butterfly food, and we glued a fake petunia on the end of the tube, so it hopefully looked kinda like something they'd try to eat from. If they used it, we were asleep and didn't see it. They sleep all day. * I've brought in some petunias from the window box (amazingly, they're still blooming the day after Thanksgiving!) * I've put liquid official butterfly food in a clean washcloth, nudged one up to it, and it chose to climb further up on the washcloth, last night. (2/3 of his/her right wings are gone, so he'll never hover again.) * I bought them some Stargazer lilies, (probably not their proper food) * They're in the guest bedroom (so the cats don't get at them again) where there's a Mandevilla flower -- big pink flowers, petunia-shaped. I'm going to try mounting the hummingbird feeder so that they reach it from the Mandevilla pot, where they may feel comfortable, blending in with the soil. Don't know if being on soil is good for them, either. But what do I do with them? This is late November; they can't be active in the usually 40+ degree temperatures out there, and there's very little blooming out there for them to eat. (They came indoors because, as caterpillars, they were on a tomato plant that we brought inside when it was likely to frost overnight, and we let them and their 6 sibs eat it ALL up. Most of their sibs crawled away after we put the pot back outside when the weather warmed up, and the tomato was out of leaves). At least these 2 pupated in the pot and came out 3 days ago. They will probably die soon, since they're probably not getting anything to eat. Funny--as caterpillars, they ate all day -- except when they saw us watching. Eventually they lost their fear of us, and ate when we were looking at them. Now, they want out! Little do they know. Another interesting thing: wild moths do not let you pick them up. These don't seem to have the usual fear of me. BEFORE they lost their ability to fly, when their wings had had many hours or a whole day to dry, they let me pick them up -- maybe they remember something from their past lives. Anyway, we're going to crazy lengths to try to give them their normal (2-week?) adult lifespan. Can anyone propose other means to get them to eat? Thanks!

We've had those moths here for years and we enjoy watching them. They're not as friendly as the hummers but never have caused any problems. The hummingbirds are usually here in spring when the flowering crabs bloom, then they're gone and return at hosta blooming time. I had to leave the feeders out for them for a couple weeks and one would stop a couple times and move on, but now they've really started frequenting them heavily. Like you, I also had just wasps and butterflies sitting on them. Now the syrup goes down visibly every day. They must be hungry little devils too because they're even trying to get nectar out of the little clear bulbs on the lights on the bushes around my deck and they buzz around my head checking me out. This is the first time I've had enough of them around me that aren't shy and they sit in the branches of my curly willow and chirp, and they sit long enough I can get a good look at them and see some of them are browner in color, and some have bright metallic green backs. Friendly little things.

Aw, poor bedraggled thing! That tomato hornworm moth has seen better days. The tomato hormworm moth belongs to an interesting family of Lepidopterans called Sphingidae...we call them Sphinx Moths or, sometimes, Hawk Moths. The caterpillars are all horn worms one of kind or another. Though it would not be incorrect to call ALL sphinx moths hummingbird moths, I don't do so. Some of the Sphinx moths have clear segments in their wings...and are called the clearwing moths. THOSE are the true hummingbird moths and are very commonly mistaken for those little birds. So! All hornworms eventually turn into a Sphinx moth. You can call them hummingbird moths if you want to, but when you see one of the true hummingbird moths in person, you'll see what I mean. Here is a link that might be useful: Some hummingbird moth images

Are very nice. They are spinx moths that take nectar. Alabama gardening allows for a lot of variety of Species both wildflowers and cultivated crops like One of my favourites, peanuts!. I grow a butterfly garden these days. There is a wild plant commonly called Ironweed That when in bloom attracts both hummingbird moths And pipeline swallowtails. My comments bar is not working, but thanks for the Picts...