Hatching silkworm eggs

[Beman]

You should be able to see the hatchlings they kinda like like eyelash on the dish. I I have observed the eggs turn white/ clear after the hatchlings emerge.View attachment 299153
you can kind see were the worm came out of the egg in this photo.

I would be ready to feed your new worms very soon.

DANG you got one heck of a micro lens lol

 

[Crossingtami]

So I can't see lil worms (eyelashes), but if I use the zoom lens, I can see these.

 

[Crossingtami]

add a bit of food... They are starting to hatch if you have white eggs. They are microscopic and die fast if they do not have food and warmth.

Ok. So I added a bit of food around the edges where there weren't eggs.

 

[MissSkittles]

Looks like they aren’t yet ready to hatch. They’ll turn a light grey right before they hatch.

 

[Madmango]

I agree with @MissSkittles the eggs do turn a little grayish. Keep your temperature around 75 to 80 and you will soon have your worms. They can take more time to hatch if the temperature is lower then 75.

 

[Beman]

Yeah now after seeing the whole dish I agree not quite there yet.

 

[Crossingtami]

Should I take the food bits out?

 

[Beman]

Should I take the food bits out?

might as well it will just turn into dried bits. Also if yours comes with a little lid the food increases humidity when you leave the lid on.

 

[Connorology]

I've always found it pretty easy - I've raised a few batches all the way to moths. I've used both an old school hovabator incubator with water in the bottom (during colder months) or just any container with some moist paper towels in the bottom, and then I put the petri dish they come in into that container, so the ambient humidity is high but the eggs themselves are kept dry.

Then I use some little pieces of fiberglass windowscreen to give them food - the food goes onto the windowscreen, the worms crawl up through the holes onto the food, and you can discard the poop, eggs, dead worms below. Once they're too big for the windowscreen IME they're robust enough to not randomly die.

Stray thoughts:

- fresh leaves work better than chow if you have access to them. Now is the time of year to get them, at least on the West Coast where I live.

- Don't feed leaves if you plan to use chow at any point, they don't transition back well.

- I always buy from Amazon and I've never had a problem hatching them. I think I've been getting them from coastal silkworms.

 

[Madmango]

@Connorology thanks for the tips. I will have to try the humidity one

 

[Crossingtami]

Took 2 weeks after receiving the eggs, but they started to hatch!

 

[Beman]

Took 2 weeks after receiving the eggs, but they started to hatch!

awwwww they are so tiny and cute when they are babies lol. I get attached to my babies and it sucks when I have to feed them off

 

[Firewallx]

Yay! Babies!

 

[Crossingtami]

Quick question... how do you take out old food if there are little worms still on the dried bits?

 

[Beman]

Quick question... how do you take out old food if there are little worms still on the dried bits?

put in new bits and they will move to the new from the old. Try cleaning out the old bits later after they have time to find the new.