mulberry tree Location

[emersonc]

hey i was thinking about starting up a silkworm collection and i know that they eat mulberry leaves. i was wondering if they grow in my area, i live in central Washington state. does someone know a website maybe? and also could i feed the silkworms something other then mulberry leaves like a supplement, and is there a place to order silkworm food online?

 

[Will Hayward]

Silkworms generally only eat two things; mulberry leaves, and mulberry chow paste. The mulberry chow is made from mulberry leaves and sold either dry, or wet. The silkworms only eat the wet chow, and should never be fed the dry powder as it has a good risk of killing them buy glogging the through after ingestion.


Leaves are grated up into incredibly fine powder similar to a light green, high oderous, baking soda like consistency. Preservitives are added to the chow to make it have a longer shelf life and depending on where you purchase it, the sellers may claim it will be good for up to one year in a refrigerated sealed package for dry chow, and one to two months in a refrigerated sealed package for wet chow.

In my personaly opinion, it is much more easy to feed chow rather than leaves if you are going to have any number of worms more than a hadful, maybe a dozen a week.

As stated by the website Treeway Silks, "8,000 silkworms will eat the leaves of between 12 and 14 trees, each approximately 12 feet tall. (too become cocoons)" (Reff. http://www.treenwaysilks.com/secrets_silk.html)​

This info came to me via personaly comminique from the owner of a Canadian Based Silkworm/Feeder Company, after someone else inquired on if it would be possibly to support a number of silkworms off of a mulberry tree they had on their property; "I had about 10,000 worms go through a single garbage bag in a single day... To not kill the tree they are talking about they would need about 30 or more trees to be constantly feeding 2000 worms."​

In addition, the chow seems to be that it could probably be healthier for the worms- Though it is definetly healthier for the reptiles eating the worms. The chow is mixed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals and other ingredients that reptiles benefit from. Feed the worms leaves and you feed them, feed the worms the chow and you are gutloading them with all the nutrients that your reptiles benefit from... There are some people that also mix in their own feeder gutload, and swear by it, saying that their own added mix is much better. The gutload that is being used is called WER Gutload made by Wild Eye Reptiles (Trustworothy peope). You can find info on the gutload here (Complete with nutrient values, customer reviews and info: http://www.wildeyereptiles.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=24&products_id=37

Silkworm Links:
Silkworms! By B. J. Caruthers (lele)
The Best source in Canada for quality worms.
Mulberry Farms! "Home of the Original Silkworm"
Coastal Silkworms "Where Quality Counts"
Information for K-12 teachers about raising silkworms in classrooms.
How to Raise Silkworms