Best method for feeding hatching silkworms?

[Nicodemayo]

Well alittle over a week ago i received 1000 silkworm eggs glued in a petri dish. Ive never done this before and I was amazed how easy it was to hatch them. Whats even more amazing is that ive had them on top of my computer at a constant 78-82 degrees and after hours of playing call of duty 4 (pcs heat up ALOT when gaming) and forgetting they were on my comp i remembered, shot the temp gun at them and they were at 90 degrees. I thought for sure they were dead. Another night, my comp turned off and my room got down to 68. These guys seem to be way more resilient than what i have read about them. They started to hatch last night and when i woke up i was amazed with how many more have hatched, so far, i would say 60% of them have hatched and they're all over the place in there. Im going to wait another 6 hours or so before i feed them but my question is, for those of you hatch them alot, whats the best way to feed/handle the hatchings? Coastal recommends grating a small layer on them and transferring them after another 24hrs while mulberry farms says to make a small band about the size of a pencil in the petri dish and to keep them in there for days until you transfer them. What have you guys found to be the method with the best yield?

Thanks!
Nic

 

[Nicodemayo]

Well, 18 views and no replies so i opted to make these little turd like chow rolls haha. They're eating away at the moment. It looks as though 90% of the eggs have hatched which i am very happy about. If i get this kind of yield every time im going to continue hatching them because if you buy them as eggs and hatch them yourself, they're just as cheap if not cheaper than crickets. This hatching process is my first and it has exceeded my expectations by far.

 

[mczoo]

thats what i saw online and what i did with my bigger silkies but i am no expert

Sean

 

[Tygerr]

This hatching process is my first and it has exceeded my expectations by far.

Hehe. I hope you've got enough food for that lot! They're going to devour bushloads Keep that chow brewing...
Since the first few times I hatched out few hundred too many, I learnt to rather hatch them out in smaller batches staged a week apart so that I'd have a constant supply of worms over the summer season.
All you have to do is refrigerate the unneeded eggs - they keep for a couple of months.

Try these links if you need more help:
- Silkworms!
- Wormspit.com

 

[Nicodemayo]

Hehe. I hope you've got enough food for that lot! They're going to devour bushloads Keep that chow brewing...
Since the first few times I hatched out few hundred too many, I learnt to rather hatch them out in smaller batches staged a week apart so that I'd have a constant supply of worms over the summer season.
All you have to do is refrigerate the unneeded eggs - they keep for a couple of months.

Try these links if you need more help:
- Silkworms!
- Wormspit.com

Ive thought this through becuase wow do they take down the food! Red Mulberry trees are an invasive species here in the southestern United States and i know where a number of these trees are. I ordered the chow to get them started and when that runs low i doing a run for mulberry leaves.

 

[chamlover]

It doesn't seem too hard to hatch them, the difficulty comes in with keeping them alive and well for the next few weeks. I usually keep mine in the dish for about a week and then use a paint brush to move them to another STERILIZED container. Have you read the thread that talks about netting them? They are too young now, but as they get older, it is one of the best methods that i ever used.

Debby

 

[CreepyCrawly]

Feeding Silkworms

I realize this is a little late, but for anyone else who might be looking into hatching out silkworms I figured it might be helpful.

I've been feeding silkworms, and hatching the eggs and raising them for probably 3 or 4 years now. Every time I hatch them I have almost 100% hatch rate - which is awesome. Also, I usually have very very few die on their way up to full size. Maybe 3 or 4 per thousand eggs hatched!

I cook up the food, and chill it, then I cut out a chunk from my rubbermaid food bowl, and use a cheese grater to grate it over the worms. I feed them once a day. It really couldn't be easier. No cutting strips or anything special.

For the hatchlings use a fine cheese grater. Once most of the worms have hatched out, I put little clumps of the grated food around the eggs, for the worms that have hatched to eat on. Once all of the worms have hatched, put a thin layer over the hatchlings. I hold the grater over the petri dish, and grate it right down over them. The fine cheese grater creates teeny tiny shreds of food - that seem to be the perfect size for the little worms to devour, so that less food gets wasted. I leave them in the petri dish until after their second or third meal usually - by then they're a little bit bigger and easier to move. I use a toothpick to move them. It is time consuming, but it works for me. Be sure that the new tub you are keeping them in is very clean - but I personally don't use cleaners on my worms' tubs. They're very chemical sensitive, so I just use hot hot hot water. Again, that is just what seems to work for me. Also, I rarely clean the worms' tubs once they're in them. Their poop dries, as does any excess uneaten food. The worms just keep on top if it all - and since it dries, there's no mold.

For larger worms, a regular thicker cheese grater is fine.

Hope this helps!