Does anyone else suck at silkworm-ing? Or is it just me?

pssh

pssh

Avid Member
I have no idea what i'm doing wrong! I have an incubator that keeps them at 80 degrees, I use clean materials, fresh leaves, and they still die! :mad: I clean the poops and move them to a new clean container everyday and I feed them 3 times a day. I wash my hands for a minute with antimicrobial soap before i handle them, and if i touch anything unsterile I wash them again. The babies have more of a tendency to die on me (like 75% of my usual 1000-2000 babies.) what the heck? I'm using the same sanitary procedures that I use to pierce myself (I'm very cautious about this, I don't mess around with germies!). Everything is cleaned super well and they still die... I can raise a few to pupation, but I want more dangit!

I must just suck at bugs...
 
I think you may be trying too hard.
I move mine off the poop mountain and into new containers far less often. I also dont keep them that warm. Around 70F during the day, cooler at night. And with the fresh leaves, make sure the humidity isnt too high.
 
Blah. The larger ones grow faster at 80. Mulberry farms' caresheet also said the new worms usually won't grow and die unless at 78+

I've tried doing it less clean, less warm, etc. Results are the same. The humidity isn't too high, though I have experimented with higher humidity (that made more deaths and moldy grossness.) Baby silkworms don't work for me. They don't grow then die at 70 (my normal house temp) and the mortality seems less with higher temps. They don't get grasserie or whatever it's called. They just die... Maybe my house gives off some sort of anti-baby silkworm death waves.

http://www.mulberryfarms.com/Care-Raising-Tips-12.html
 
sandrachameleon said:
I think you may be trying too hard.
I move mine off the poop mountain and into new containers far less often. I also dont keep them that warm. Around 70F during the day, cooler at night. And with the fresh leaves, make sure the humidity isnt too high.
Click to expand...

I agree. You might be moving them too much. No need to feed them three times a day either. Sometimes I would skip a day or 2 between feeding them and they were fine. Also made it so they didnt grow as much. I would only wash my hands with dish soap before messing with them. Thats all the sterilization i did. I thought they were easy as hell when I used them as feeders. None of my chams like worm type feeders so I dont bother with them anymore.
 
I only raised 500 at a time but I didn't have too many die, my temps were def at 80 and above, but it would drop at night, I also pierced their containers with lots of little holes for the poop to fall through so I didn't have to handle them much, and when I did I used gloves, I also fed them mulberry leaves. I would towel dry the leaves if there was any presipitation on them since I kept them in the fridge.

Maybe your getting bad bugs?
 
you are clearly working way too hard...
I almost never wash my hands before ever fussing with them, only use twiezers on the small ones - otherwise I use my fingers to move them, try to move to clean containers every other day if poop is not too bad, feed every day but only once and mostly just chow.

I will say some don'ts that should be taken with a grain of salt...
don't sneeze - germs, don't blink - I have lost at least 100's due to their fear of eye lash movement, don't talk - they hear everything and will just kill themself if they hear you are going to feed them off tomorrow, and what ever you do just don't FART!!!!
I think I lost over 500 silkies by farting one day. come to think of it, I think that killed my crickets too. :p

Harry
 
Hey Kara,i remember us talking about silkies in another thread, mine have been dying like 1 a day so i dunno what im doing wrong but lots of my guys have pupated now i think ive counted 8 so far that have pupated. My guys were dying alot faster when there were alot more of them in the box so i dunno if having too many in one container does anything. But i did find that feeding them non stop they wont pupate but once i stopped feeding them for a couple of days they started.
 
Weeeelllll, I have tried it when extremely clean and when I was very lax with it. No matter what I do, the majority of them die by the end of their first week. I've kept them on paper towel and on that plastic mesh stuff from the craft store. If they are on their poop, they die. If they aren't on their poop, they die. If it's warm, they die. If it's cool, the die. If I'm super clean, they die. If I leave the frass and stuff for a few days, they die. If I feed them chow, the chow dries up and they die. If I feed them leaves, they die. If I keep the humidity extremely low, they die. If I leave it at my normal room humidity, they die. If I raise it, they die. If I keep them in an incubator, they die. If I keep them out somewhere, they die. If they have a lid on or on partially, they die. They die with no lid as well. If I feed them once a day, they die. If I feed them twice or more a day, they seem to die a little less. If I skip a day, they die. If I wash my hands before I touch them, they die. If I don't wash my hands before I touch them, they die.

I think I'm just not meant to raise silkworms from eggs... I can keep them alive perfectly fine after they are 1/2"+
 
pssh said:
Weeeelllll, I have tried it when extremely clean and when I was very lax with it. No matter what I do, the majority of them die by the end of their first week. I've kept them on paper towel and on that plastic mesh stuff from the craft store. If they are on their poop, they die. If they aren't on their poop, they die. If it's warm, they die. If it's cool, the die. If I'm super clean, they die. If I leave the frass and stuff for a few days, they die. If I feed them chow, the chow dries up and they die. If I feed them leaves, they die. If I keep the humidity extremely low, they die. If I leave it at my normal room humidity, they die. If I raise it, they die. If I keep them in an incubator, they die. If I keep them out somewhere, they die. If they have a lid on or on partially, they die. They die with no lid as well. If I feed them once a day, they die. If I feed them twice or more a day, they seem to die a little less. If I skip a day, they die. If I wash my hands before I touch them, they die. If I don't wash my hands before I touch them, they die.

I think I'm just not meant to raise silkworms from eggs... I can keep them alive perfectly fine after they are 1/2"+
Click to expand...

and that is why they cost far more the larger they are....
try to understand that while you may be having a lot of die offs right now, that others are more or less in the same boat.

take 1000 eggs. only 800 hatch. of the 800, only 500 make it to 1/2" size. of the 500, only 450 make it to 1". of the 450, only 400 make it to 1 1/2" +.
if this is basicly what you are getting in the end, then you are not alone and is the major reason I never buy any smaller then 1" unless I'm raising babys.

it's alot harder then most people think, so don't give up, just keep trying and use extra batches of eggs to make up for the loss you know is going to happen.

Harry
 
I know to expect some die off, but not this much! So if I buy 1000 eggs, 800 hatch, 600-700 are dead by the end of the week. That's ridiculous!
 
Maybe its your mullberry leaves, since that sounds like the only constant. Perhaps the tree was once sprayed, or is near a road (pollutants)?
They do grow faster when towards 80F than towards 70F. But they shouldnt die off at either temp.
 
I've tried different trees from different areas. Plus these trees (even the ones by roadsides) didn't kill off my older wormies. My worms are weird! Or maybe it's me? I do make small animals poop/pee when I hold them... Maybe I'll grow them at a different house?
 
pssh said:
Weeeelllll, I have tried it when extremely clean and when I was very lax with it. No matter what I do, the majority of them die by the end of their first week. I've kept them on paper towel and on that plastic mesh stuff from the craft store. If they are on their poop, they die. If they aren't on their poop, they die. If it's warm, they die. If it's cool, the die. If I'm super clean, they die. If I leave the frass and stuff for a few days, they die. If I feed them chow, the chow dries up and they die. If I feed them leaves, they die. If I keep the humidity extremely low, they die. If I leave it at my normal room humidity, they die. If I raise it, they die. If I keep them in an incubator, they die. If I keep them out somewhere, they die. If they have a lid on or on partially, they die. They die with no lid as well. If I feed them once a day, they die. If I feed them twice or more a day, they seem to die a little less. If I skip a day, they die. If I wash my hands before I touch them, they die. If I don't wash my hands before I touch them, they die.

I think I'm just not meant to raise silkworms from eggs... I can keep them alive perfectly fine after they are 1/2"+
Click to expand...

I think that your problem might be that they get contaminated with bacteria and once that has happened it is just a matter of time for them to die off...you should try small batches in different containers, also I would pick up the mulberry leaves earlier in the season -around June, July the latest - when they are tender. At one point I would get a couple of hundred moths and get almost half a cup of eggs. I stopped raising them because at that time I had a Jackson X. and he got bored with them...
 
Howdy Kara,

I may have missed some of the facts in your post...

Are these eggs from your silkmoths or did you buy them from Mulberry Farms?

Either way, it is quite possible that you have "bad" eggs. It can happen for a number of reasons like improper storage temps, poorly formed, too old, etc. If you bought them, contact the supplier and see what they think. Maybe you'll get a replacement batch or at least some info of what to try next. If you harvested them from your own moths then maybe the eggs didn't get a proper cool-down period or the moths themselves had issues. I always raise super small worms on silkworm chow because it is easier for them to eat it with their tiny mouth parts. If you have baby mulberry leaves then you have a good chance since they are much more tender to chew.

I think it is a bad batch(es) of eggs and not so much the way you are raising them :(.
 
I've been buying them so far. I feed off my moths too fast :) the mulberry trees around here still have new growth on them. I've been picking the newest looking leaves and storing them in the fridge. They don't have trouble eating it as the leaves are stripped bare after a few hours when newly hatched.

I'll send them an email. Thanks!
 
maybe u and silkworms dont mix well :p lol

Dont worry im sure you will get your desried numbers up...remember

"SI se Puede":D:cool:

also i mite agree with possible bad eggs, but you never really knoww unless you have a microcope;)
 
My opinion is that you're feeding too much.

Since I cut back feeding my silks in store from twice daily to once, I've had one die (as opposed to a few a night).

You're definitely taking the right approach to cleanliness but what they eat, they poop so really they're doing it to themselves.

Run a test.
Split the batches up.
Feed one batch once a day and the other twice a day.
See if that helps out.
 
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