New Silk Worm Moths! Do they need to eat?

[Trillian]

5th female hung around long enough for a male to hatch, but died towards the end of copulation. Think I might separate the next ones, assuming I have any more hatch, got 5 cocoons left but no activity. My females only seem to last 24 hours. Got two new batches of silkworms, but I think they are a duff batch, due to the heat perhaps, the pots arrived full of mould and probably a third of the worms in each didn't make it. Hard to tell what was mould and what was worm at that point though. I decanted them, but they are dying off fairly quickly still.

 

[pigglett79]

Wow that sounds nasty. Maybe they can send you a replacement shipment.

 

[Trillian]

It's pretty gross... they keep turning into sacks of goo! Have emailed Mulberry Farms to let them know and ask for replacements. Wish I had a good enough reason to ask them to replace the monster hornworms with ones a more manageable size!

 

[pigglett79]

Yeah next time you get hornworms try ordering eggs from great lakes hornworms. Its so much better.

 

[Trillian]

Do they have them in stock yet? They were having trouble with them when I ordered and didn't have any. Tempted just to breed these beasts, they arrived at what I hope is near pupation-size, I'll never sleep again if they get any bigger.