Best silkworm breeding methods?

KarmaChameleon1337

KarmaChameleon1337

Avid Member
Would exoterras work? I want to try to breed as many as possible, as I know they're a good staple (still having a variety), Bo loves them, and it'd be nice to be able to give some away to those who have helped me. I know you can buy chow or use mulberry leaves. Is it easy to grow mulberry plants? I'd like to look into that. Are there other feeding alternatives? Can I see pictures of fast breeding setups, and get links to how long it usually takes per period of their life? Please and thanks. -Cheyenne
 
Sounds like a plan. In China (where they originally come from) they usually breed them in open crates or bamboo baskets (the ones you use for dim sum steaming but bigger). Once they are ready for cocooning, they transfer them to a vertical crate or egg crate. Chow works but the leaves are better. The mulberry tree is easy to grow depending on the area you live in. Yet remember that silkworms eat a lot. So one tree might not be enough to sustain a colony unless big enough.
 
What I've gathered from videos thus far: (in the span of about 10 minutes :eek:)

Feed the worms until they get large, have paper rolls around the enclosure. They'll coccoon.
Seperate the coccoons (if you so choose)
Have them ontop of paper towel, once they emerge (you'll see a hole they make with saliva in the coccoons) they will mate, females will lay yellow eggs that turn black when fertile days later, males will continue to look for females.
Cut out the black eggs, put them in the freezer (for how long?) to stimulate them.
Take them out and incubate them. (I don't have an incubator, can I use a smaller exoterra and put a heat lamp on them?)

They will hatch 7-20 days later, and you'll get tiny worms.
 
Hi Karma! I'm a bit of a novice at this but here's what we've done.

Feed up the worms, don't put paper towels in yet as the worms will stick to them.

The worms will cocoon all on thier own. Once the cocoon is made don't touch it for 4 days as it needs 3 days to harden.

Once hardened, place the cocoons on any old box lined with paper towels and keep somewhere warm and dry.

Once a moth hatches out (they won't all hatch at the same time) transfer the moth to a smaller tub lined with paper towels.

Now the thing we've had troubled with is we got 6 males and only one female! You'll know when you have a female as when you place her into the moth box the males will go wild fluttering and climb all over her!

Once you have two moths joined at the tale you should remove any other moths and give them peace as the males will try to pull the mating pair apart do they can get in on the action :)

They will stay joined for a day or so. When you see them seperated take the male out and leave the female to lay.

Once she has finished laying it is possible to try breeding her again but it might not work.

The eggs will turn dark in a couple of days if fertile and will turn light if not.

We haven't set up any special enclosure or anything, nature pretty much did all the work for us :)
 
Oh and you put the eggs in the FRIDGE for 3 weeks but they can be kept for much longer if you like. They can hatch at room temperature and you only put small amounts of food in after the first worm hatches.
 
Might as well start with eggs so you get experience hatching them.

There are good websites maintained by people who breed silkworms to make silk, read up.

More than anything, sterilize the room, enclosure, and your hands. For thousands of years these guys have been bred for one thing and one thing only, making silk. They have no immune system and get sick really easy.

Good luck! Silkworms are the best feeder to deal with in my opinion! They are fascinating :D
 
deadhd5 said:
Might as well start with eggs so you get experience hatching them.

There are good websites maintained by people who breed silkworms to make silk, read up.

More than anything, sterilize the room, enclosure, and your hands. For thousands of years these guys have been bred for one thing and one thing only, making silk. They have no immune system and get sick really easy.

Good luck! Silkworms are the best feeder to deal with in my opinion! They are fascinating :D
Click to expand...

Hahah well I know they're out there... but can you link them?
 
We just got little worms, the eggs are cheaper though! Also, that one female that we have has laid over 100 eggs :eek: good job the geckos like silkworms because it would take Teal'c forever to get through that many!
 
You don't have to refrigerate them but they might take just as long to hatch anyway. Depending on the time of year, like if it's almost winter, they may not hatch till the next year in which case you would need to refrigerate them till the spring/summer.

Refrigerating is good to do if you have a lot of eggs. Then you can hatch out just what you need instead of ending up with hundreds of little worms to feed one chameleon.
 
AngieL said:
You don't have to refrigerate them but they might take just as long to hatch anyway. Depending on the time of year, like if it's almost winter, they may not hatch till the next year in which case you would need to refrigerate them till the spring/summer.

Refrigerating is good to do if you have a lot of eggs. Then you can hatch out just what you need instead of ending up with hundreds of little worms to feed one chameleon.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I dont have that problem lol at my place I have 4 leopard geckos and my chameleon to feed and then at my girlfriends I have 3 beardies, a crested and two more leo's lol So I will just order silk eggs off of mulberry farms, like a 2000 count I think.
 
ISA my Veiled said:
Oh yeah, I dont have that problem lol at my place I have 4 leopard geckos and my chameleon to feed and then at my girlfriends I have 3 beardies, a crested and two more leo's lol So I will just order silk eggs off of mulberry farms, like a 2000 count I think.
Click to expand...

Wow! You can have some of ours, I'll email them to you :)
 
When you take them out of the refrigerator and a good amount hatch can you stick the rest back in the refrigerator or will they go bad
 
Chameleonmaster said:
When you take them out of the refrigerator and a good amount hatch can you stick the rest back in the refrigerator or will they go bad
Click to expand...

If they don't hatch with the rest then I would think they're bad already. The fertile ones turn dark a couple of days after they're laid and they turn a grayish colour just before they're going to hatch.

The idea is that you get the eggs laid on a paper towel and then just cut out a section with however many you want to hatch at a time and just leave the rest in the fridge :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

M
Silkworm Mulberry Leaf Feeding Tips Needed
Replies
14
Views
896
Steve A
Steve A
dommer94
Introduction to the community
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
MissSkittles
MissSkittles
Umbra
Invasive Chamaeleo calyptratus - Florida Population Observations
Replies
8
Views
1K
Umbra
Umbra
Harry938
4 month update on my Cham and enclosure
Replies
2
Views
555
Harry938
Harry938
M
Raising roaches experience (and advice)
Replies
5
Views
1K
Mark_C
M
Back
Top Bottom