Silkworms and their needs

[Andee]

So I ordered a larger batch than normal of live silkworms because I needed to replenish my egg stock. However I kept them like I usually kept them. I kept 200 zebra silkworms in a shoebox sized Rubbermaid storage container, with good ventilation, daily cleanings, and daily feedings. However I have noticed a larger number of deaths, and stranger growing issues with this batch. I have a feeling it's because I kept too many in a confined space. I should either have immediately placed them in my upgraded bin, or portioned them out. I lost about half my colony of worms not to feedings, but slowly through out their growing periods. Also I have a lot of stragglers as far as correct growth. In other words I have learned from this. In my opinion, two hundred worms need a much larger amount of space than one hundred. I always upgrade my remaining worms once they get near cocooning age. But I fear I should have started out this way.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

My first batch of 200 are just starting to hatch. Should I put them into a big bin as soon as they come out of the egg dish or transfer them to a small first?

 

[Andee]

What genetic line do you have? If you have a simple white bloodline they tend to die easier and are less hardy when it comes to germ contamination and such at really any age. Zebras do well with germs if they are half and inch or larger, just general cleanliness is needed as with any critter, but I have noticed they tend to be more sensitive to over crowding to certain other lines. There is this hard to get african/tiger hybrid that I can't get more of 50 worms at once and I am lucky if I can get them once a year. I never have any of these die off once. I order them from a small breeder and these are the only type of worms I order from her. When I am able to get my hands on them I never feed them off and raise them all into moths to get as many eggs as possible to get a good generation started for myself. Though it is hard to keep them going just from 50 worms from the start. Sometimes i end up breeding my last few tiger hybrids with zebras. I never breed pure whites if I buy them, and prefer only to buy zebras when I can. The tiger hybrids are extremely expensive compared to even zebras but they are worth it even if you cross breed with zebra strains. They can make poor quality worms relatively strong. Usually with two hundred that I raise from eggs I end up transferring them from the egg dish at lime 1/4 inches, I would either move them to a larger food storage container at this stage or move to a small shoebox storage container. Provide plenty of ventilation especially if you are feeding chow. Once they hit 1/2 and inch at least they should be fine to move to a relatively larger storage container I tend to use shorter, but long and wide ones. They don't really need much height.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

I have 200 zebras just starting to hatch, I'm glad that I got that type! I ordered those because I thought that the stripes might catch the scale babies attention better than white, I didn't know that they were hardier. Would it be better to move them straight to the bigger container?

 

[Andee]

Don't move them to the biggest container unless they are 1/2 inch or bigger. I have noticed that the worms smaller than that and are moved too quickly to too big of container, dry up faster or wander away to explore and often can't find their way back fast enough.

 

[ZacharyLeesWife]

I have smaller 1 gallon tubs and medium size bins. I'll definitely go with the gallon ones first, they're about 8x8.