Got Silkworms?

[Koula]

Hey everyone, I bought a tub of Silkworms a while back, I let them all coccoon themselves and hatch out a few weeks later as moths. The moths have laid heaps of eggs in the tub, it's been 3 weeks now, many eggs are still a creamy yellow colour, and there's a heap of dark grey eggs as well.

How long does it take for them to hatch? I've heard it takes 3 weeks, but then I've also heard 9-10 months. I'm not to comfortable about refridgerating the eggs as apparently if you cool the grey eggs it'll kill them. The eggs are all in one big clump, so its hard to seperate all the yellow from the grey.

I've trawled heaps of silkworm care sites through google, but they're all american sites (probably configured towards northern hemisphere climate and temps)... are there any detailed Silkworm care sites aimed at Australian silkies?

Does anyone here breed their own silkworms? Or anyone here know where you can buy bulk silkworms at a cheap/decent/affordable price?

 

[Magpie]

You have to chill them in the fridge to get a decent hatch rate.
About 6 months seems to be ideal.
I've had mine accidently put in the freezer for 3 days and still got 50% or better hatching so don't worry about killing them.
I've also hatched out eggs that have been over 12 months in the fridge.

 

[Koula]

Do the yellow eggs still hatch? A site said the yellow ones were infertile (but another site said the yellow ones just take longer to hatch, so they were the ones that got refridgerated. They grey ones were fertile and didnt need chilling because they were going to hatch in a few weeks anyway).

Man, do they stink putrid when they hatch from their coccoons... and that gross creamy pink/brown fluid they splatter everywhere looks foul to. One just hatched out from a coccoon this morning and yipes!

 

[Magpie]

I've neve seen a yellow one hatch at all, only grey ones that had been refridgerated.

 

[Menagerie]

Where do you get silkworms from to breed them?

 

[Koula]

Pet shop... Get them to order in tubs from Pisces Enterprises for you. About $8 for a tub of 10-12 worms.

 

[Menagerie]

Thanks SR! How well do they breed? Are they are fairly good food source? And how many tubs would I need to buy to get a colony? What are you feeding them?

 

[Koula]

They're easy to keep and breed, but they are seasonal. They are pretty much the best food source available compared to crickets, mealworms and woodies. There's a heap of silkworm websites out there on google that even have nutritional charts showing the fat, moisture, protein, etc contents of each feeder insect comparing stats to the silkworm.

I'd probably buy 2 tubs to start with, all-white worms are females I think, and the worms with the black bands are the males. (I could be wrong, could be vice versa?) Each female pops out about 100 - 300 eggs on average.

They only eat one thing. Mulberry tree leaves. You MUST have access to mulberry tree leaves pretty much constantly because the silkworms mow throught the leaves at incredible speed. 10 adult worms will chomp thru an A4-paper size worth of mulberry leaves in 24 hours or less. That's why they are seasonal, cuz the baby silkworms can only eat the baby new leaves of mulberry trees that sprout at the start of spring.

A happy customer:

 

[Bombie]

silk worms

hey guys,
if you want a fair quantity try personal pet services, located in se qld.
i got 100 silkwork for $17 plus freight.
they do all sorts of food items and are good to deal with.
pm me if you want their number.
bombie

 

[Jonathon]

I bought 100 hundred eggs for $1 a few months back and let them grow into large silkies and turn into moths they laid heaps of eggs (by heaps I mean thousands) and I put them in the fridge for about 2 weeks (i had no idea how long they were meant to be in there for) and then took them out and now a few have hatched and I?m waiting for some more to hatch. I've read about people in America using stuff they call 'Silkchow' or silkworm chow' Its basically a mix of mulberry leaves and vitamins (I think) to make the silkies healthy and if you have this you can breed them year round. Does anyone know if this is available in Australia?

 

[Koula]

Not sure where you'd get it from, I always thought it was just pureed mulberry with some sort of thickener added and left to sit like jelly. I havent heard of any commercial silkworm chow been available in Oz, but I am interested in who/where you got your 100 eggs for $1 from? I want some!

 

[Menagerie]

me too!

 

[peterjohnson64]

I think someone should post a care sheet for how to raise & breed silkworms. I would like to have a mulberry tree but although my wife will happily put up with snakes there is no way she would accept what mulberries mixed with rainbow lorikeets will do to our washing!!!

 

[Jonathon]

I got the eggs form some woman who was breeding them for schools (for kids to learn about life cycles) and she was selling the eggs for $1 for 100. I thought that must have been pretty good since I saw silkworms for sale on the internet for 0.50c each.

 

[reptililian]

I did the silkworm thing as a kid, and the only problem I had was ending up with too many of the little dudes. They also eat lettuce. We used iceberg.

 

[reptililian]

Oh dear, I should have been clearer. Swiftrat is correct in a way when he says that they only eat mulberry leaves. Apparently you can't alter what you feed them. If, from the moment they hatch, you feed them mulberry leaves, then it's mulberry leaves forever more. Ditto lettuce. And we used iceberg simply because it was the only sort of lettuce around back then. (It's 5ish in the morning and I HAD to log on to clarify myself incase someone woke up and killed all their silkworms by suddenly changing their diet).

Also perhaps this is a myth, but apparently if you feed them lettuce leaves then their cocoons are green instead of yellow, as with mulberry leaves. And if you feed them on rose leaves (oh, did I forget to mention rose leaves?) then their cocons are pink.

 

[Koula]

Lettuce, ey? Did the worms reach maturity on the stuff? Or did they get fed to herps before the coccoon stage, cuz lettuce doesn't have the fibrous silk-making protein that mulberry leaves have.

 

[Jonathon]

I've also been told you can use lettuce and beetroot leaves (apparently if you use the beetroot leaves they spin red cocoons) although I?ve never tried it. I may try it with a few silkworms when they hatch.

 

[Koula]

Sounds like wive's tales... Silkworms are host-specific to mulberry trees. Sure, they'll eat lettuce or any other leaf if there's nothing else around of course, only to survive for a week, but they won't thrive. The mortality rate of worms dying before they can make a coccoon will be through the roof. They need the fibrous protein in mulberry leaves to make the silk required for cocoon making and metamorphisis.

 

[reptililian]

Swiftrat, you sure know your creepy-crawlies! What you say makes sense, and there is every chance that what Jonathon and I are repeating are indeed purely old wive's tales. If I had silkies, I would take your advice and raise them on mulberry leaves.

PS see what I mean about how easy rumours are to start! Anyone's dragon purred for them yet?!? :wink: