Posting my silkworm experience

[snitz427]

I wonder if a handful of springtails could be kept with the silks to take care of mold?

I havent had any issue until this time around. It started in those stupid petri dishes and now I cant shake it. So far this colony is doing ok but still seeing mold spores. So word to the wise is skip thr petri dish!

 

[snitz427]

1,000 silkies is proving to be a lot of work. Still refining my system... I may experiment with a small batch of them to see how long they can go without food. Part of my problem is some stragglers who don't leave the old dried up food. There’s very little but they still cling to it.

Then there is also the silkworms that get knotted up together because of all the silk they spun in the same spot.

I think ultimately I need either significantly more room - to allow room for new rows of food without layering nets as much (less mold transfer and worm handling). Or I need to give significantly less food each feeding so that it is all eaten and they quickly flock to new food... but I worry about the young silkies going without food for too long. So the expirement will help me figure out if they can go 12-24 hours with zero access to food, or longer.

 

[snitz427]

The zebras and blacks are about 1" long now... 1000 silkworms is a lot. I'm going to need to split them into a third container, at least, to avoid crowding. I haven't had any issues or any deaths (knock on wood), but I'd rather be cautious. They'll grow pretty quickly from this point, and I don't want to overcrowd the larger, heavier, silkies.

I think I ended up getting short changed on the black silkworms. Half of them look like normals, and it doesn't look like 500 total. I am going to reach out to coastal and hopefully rectify it, as they were expensive!! I know they get their eggs from a supplier, so I'm wondering if anyone who got black eggs ended up with a lot of normal eggs mixed in...

 

[snitz427]

Coastal Silkworms is great. Got a super fast response. Still think I have less blacks, but they explained to me some differences with zebras. So for zebra silkworms, the zebra coloration only applies to females. Male "zebras" are all white. Apparently this doesn't apply to the black silkworms, only zebras. Wishing I didn't feed off a bunch of "normal" silkworms this morning...apparently they were some of my future male moths!

 

[Rst_Cham]

This thread is so interesting, thanks for sharing! I bought 250 eggs; they hatched about 10 days ago, and I have about 175 worms. I cant imagine 1,000! So far so good.

I've had moths lay about 1,000 eggs total which I've had in the fridge for about 2 months so far. I read that I can try hatching some after 3 months in the fridge. I couldn't find how long they last in fridge though, do you know? I have some worms cocooning now so hoping to get another 500-1,000 or so more eggs. I think that 1,500-2,000 eggs should easily last me a year or more if I hatch about 100 month, if they stay good in the fridge that long!

 

[snitz427]

This thread is so interesting, thanks for sharing! I bought 250 eggs; they hatched about 10 days ago, and I have about 175 worms. I cant imagine 1,000! So far so good.

I've had moths lay about 1,000 eggs total which I've had in the fridge for about 2 months so far. I read that I can try hatching some after 3 months in the fridge. I couldn't find how long they last in fridge though, do you know? I have some worms cocooning now so hoping to get another 500-1,000 or so more eggs. I think that 1,500-2,000 eggs should easily last me a year or more if I hatch about 100 month, if they stay good in the fridge that long!

I've read that the longer the are refridgerated (over-wintered), the lower the hatch rate. I think at 6 months the hatch rate is about 50% but I could be way off. Memory isn't what it used to be!

 

[Rst_Cham]

I've read that the longer the are refridgerated (over-wintered), the lower the hatch rate. I think at 6 months the hatch rate is about 50% but I could be way off. Memory isn't what it used to be!

OK, thanks. Maybe I'll try for even more eggs then since it sounds like I'll have a lot that wont hatch. I'm trying to make sure I have enough for over the winter when a lot of vendors are out of stock for months on end.

 

[Rst_Cham]

And I also want to be able to hatch WAY less at a time, I have no need for hundreds of worms at once!

 

[snitz427]

me too. getting these guys to cocoon is a lot of work and a lot of food. I'd rather do a large batch once every month or two, and just hatch what I need.

 

[snitz427]

So. Many. Little. Mouths. Man, 3-400 silkworms can EAT! I’ve been having trouble keeping up as I’ve been too busy lately to rotate the worms to new mesh every other day... especially since their bins are a huge mess. I blame the petri dishes.. the mold they introduced really messed up my system.



Since I’ve been stretched a little thin, I’ve been seeing how long they can go without access to a lot of food. They can definitely go 24+ hours with little to no food at this size (1.5” ish). I’d venture to say they can go up to 36-48 hours without food.. but I don’t want to risk that with these guys. I need the eggs!



The size difference is weird. I picked out about 100 zebras that were significantly larger than their hatch mates. The blacks were hatched at the same time and are a bit smaller on average. The blacks also have a lower hatch rate. They both have been pretty hardy. We turned the AC on so the house is a bit cooler and these guys have done just fine with the food and temp changes!

Here’s a picture of the zebras and blacks. An interesting thing I learned is that the male zebras are all white, similiar to normal silkworms, whereas the females have the stripes. The blacks dont have this difference.

 

[Rst_Cham]

That's a lot of worms. I only have 175 or so and still figuring out a system. I've definitely been moving mine every other day over to new food, they're growing fast. I started mine in a petri dish first, then moved them to Tupperware after reading your post!

 

[snitz427]

That's a lot of worms. I only have 175 or so and still figuring out a system. I've definitely been moving mine every other day over to new food, they're growing fast. I started mine in a petri dish first, then moved them to Tupperware after reading your post!

It is. I’m going to list some for sale in my local fb feeder group. I’m giving my guys as many as they’ll eat and I am still going to end up with about 150 to feed... not including the 200 I’m going to let pupate!

 

[snitz427]

Here’s one of my guys enjoying a lil’ silkworm snack. I like to put 2 or 3 of them in my palm because they ball up. So my guys get a few at once (otherwise they’ll eat them so slowly my arm will fall asleep). These guys are relatively small still so 2-3 is about the size of a large cricket. The downside, you’ll see, is sometimes they drop some!

Large silkwroms should only be fed 1 at a time as they can get pretty round and firm.

Donnie Snacking

 

[snitz427]

We have our first two moths from the big batch! Wish me luck! I watched this poor guy try to squeeze out for an hour then we finally cut him out. Was cute, wish i got the whole thing.

Silkmoth emerging

 

[snitz427]

We have “normal” moths hatching and mating, woohoo!

Have way too many silks, even with 4 chameleons. We hatched 1000, and are pupating 200+. The chams have eaten primarily silks for a week and we still have probably 2-300 left. Good thing they like em!

Male zebras have interesting markings that look like wings and eye masks...



And here’s a video of a silkworm moulting and shedding his skin.

 

[snitz427]

We’ve had much better luck with cocoons this time around. We have/had at least 6 mating pairs so far, with lots if cocoons left.



These guys can spray a little (females), which was surprising. I guess whatever it is attracts mates because the makes congregate around the spray. It makes for unsightly papertowels, but quickly dries and is otherwise not something to worry about.


We got twins! A few silks cocooned together. Pretty interesting because the cocoon is not much larger than the others.

 

[snitz427]

Resist the urge to buy those 500-1000 silkworm eggs because its not mucch more money. Good grief... my guys are sick of eating silkworms, and I’m sick of them, too! We are swimming in them, and have a ton that are getting ready to pupate.

I went through 1lb ($20!) of dry chow in 2 days and I need to make more first thing, as I ran out before refilling all the bins! This is the third or fourth night this week I’ve been up until midnight and some of that is thanks to these turds.

Totally worth buying and raising them, just don’t buy significantly more than you need or plant to breed because 1000 is a lot of work!

On a more interesting note - the zebras and silks both spin significantly smaller cocoons than normal silkworms. The blacks have spun all yellow cocoons so far.

 

[JoXie411]

We’ve had much better luck with cocoons this time around. We have/had at least 6 mating pairs so far, with lots if cocoons left.

View attachment 234262

These guys can spray a little (females), which was surprising. I guess whatever it is attracts mates because the makes congregate around the spray. It makes for unsightly papertowels, but quickly dries and is otherwise not something to worry about.

View attachment 234263
We got twins! A few silks cocooned together. Pretty interesting because the cocoon is not much larger than the others.


View attachment 234264

Ooo I read about two being in a cocoon. We’re they of different sex?

 

[Beman]

I love this thread!

 

[amfire125]

LOVE this thread and thank you all for sharing so much!! I would love to start breeding a few staple feeders - silkies included. I worry A LOT about quantity! I only have one cham and this is a TON and overwhelming! Anybody have general advice for scaling down this whole production significantly? I'm not sure if it's worth it, but I hate spending money repeatedly on feeders when I could breed them myself.