Silkworms! How to hatch eggs?

[MissSkittles]

Well the reason that some eggs don't go into diapause while others do has to do with the strain of silkworms we use. There are some that are univoltine, meaning one brood per year, so they always have diapause eggs thinking that the eggs will have to overwinter. There are also bivoltine and polyvoltine strains which will have some non-diapausing broods.

It's like some other butterflies and moths: some species have one generation during the year and they overwinter while other species may go through a few generations in a year before producing the overwintering generation.

For the ones who are of the bi or poly voltine varieties, what their eggs will do depends on what conditions the mother experienced in her egg stage.

Very interesting! I had no idea of anything like that. The info I’ve found on silkies has been limited to hatching, feeding, life stages. Although honestly, I didn’t know to look for more.

 

[Firewallx]

Here are some pictures:
View attachment 358517View attachment 358518View attachment 358519

View attachment 358521

Oops, sorry I forgot to answer about the container size. To that I would say it depends on how many silkworms you intend to hatch. When they are in the first three instars, the containers don't have to be very big, however once you get into the last two instars, they'll need more space. Sometimes I even need to separate them into a few containers. It just depends on how many. Also, some people keep large amounts of silkworms all together while I prefer to spread them out.

I would recommend using something like gutter guard to keep them out of their own poop. Personally, I've used the mesh netting that garlic bulbs are sold in and the net on top of clementine boxes for the younger worms, while I keep the gutter guard for the last two instars. It just seems easier for the little ones.