silkworm dieing need some help!

[freddyf385]

I have some silkworm that i plan on breeding. I have found some dead. Ive been feeding coastal silkworm chow and mulberry leaves. My setup is pretty standard, as far as care.
The silkworms appear like they poped and or couldnt properly digest the food. I have a picture in my albums cant attach the picture for some reason. Feel free to check it out .can anybody tell me what i can do to fix this, or let me know what im doing wrong.

 

[Lazy Boy]

With silkworms it must be clean and you must wash your hands very good before handling food or the silkworms. Why mulberry leafs and chow? Cut the chow out if you can and only feed leafs. How big are the silks you are working with? I'm guessing pretty big if you are trying to breed them. I got 500 or so going right now and haven't had any die off as of now. Also what temps are they at? Temps are a very big deal for silks and I always have mine 80-85 degrees.

 

[MelissaB]

Did they turn black before they died? If you ever see a black one in your bin, you need to remove it right away. It's some kind of sickness, don't recall the name, and when you go to remove them, be careful because they will pop. You don't want the other worms to come into contact with the infected one's fluids.

 

[pigglett79]

If they turn to goo then it's the silkworm virus and you will likely lose them all. If they are just dying without turning to a black goo it is likely a bacteria and I would still not feed them off as they could infect your chameleon.

Silkworm virus is airborne so if that's it you need to air out the house and not bring in anymore silkworms for a while.

 

[freddyf385]

Temps are between 75-80. And when some if them died they were still white never turned black nefore death just looked like they poped with water coming out of mouth i from what ut looks like. As far as food its hard to come by ad far as melberry leafs so when i had and ran out i used silkworm chow as my substitute till they cacoon so now i find some of my silkworms are dieng one by one.

 

[freddyf385]

Sorry for the spelling my fingers are to fat for my keyboard on my phone. I try and keep them as clean as possible. Maybe trying to be to clean got them sick. Kinda bumbs me out that there dieing but i not gunna give up.

 

[Redeye84]

I have some silkworm that i plan on breeding. I have found some dead. Ive been feeding coastal silkworm chow and mulberry leaves. My setup is pretty standard, as far as care.
The silkworms appear like they poped and or couldnt properly digest the food. I have a picture in my albums cant attach the picture for some reason. Feel free to check it out .can anybody tell me what i can do to fix this, or let me know what im doing wrong.

Don't buy. So many.

 

[ridgebax1]

I have had a similar experience but with hornworms. The last bunch that I purchased all stopped eating and died. They were not pupating as the seller suggested. Shortly after feeding some of them to my chams, Clouseau got stomatitis and is on two antibiotics; he seems improved but still has brown crap in his mouth.