Raising silkworms/breeding?

[graceface]

I swear the hardest part of figuring all this out is what to feed :roll:

I would really like to raise silkworm eggs. Mulberry farms has a great page on raising the eggs, but their setup seems complex and expensive with an incubator. I was wondering for those of you who raise your own silks if you have any luck raising with your own setups and what your setup is? And is breeding quite difficult with these guys?

 

[Taterbug]

I have on and off for a year now. Unless I am terribly lucky they haven't been half as hard as the care guides suggest. My first batch hatched accedentally on the table and I didn't even have food ready for them (had just ordered it).

I keep them in a Tupperware somewhere warm. Next to my snakes heat light worked fine, now I've got them on a shelf in my dragons enclosure. I use cake decorating bags to feed and keep the food fresh.

 

[graceface]

How many eggs do you order at a time? I want to order a thousand and just refrigerate them and then hatch them as I need them, but I don't know if they would last long enough in the fridge.

I really want to hatch my own but the care sheets make it sound impossible without a lot of hassle lol

 

[Taterbug]

How many eggs do you order at a time? I want to order a thousand and just refrigerate them and then hatch them as I need them, but I don't know if they would last long enough in the fridge.

I really want to hatch my own but the care sheets make it sound impossible without a lot of hassle lol

I started with caterpillars. 7 of them grew up and morphed into moths before I fed them off. Once they emerged they mated and layed eggs, all those eggs hatched (eggs laid in the spring are often ready to hatch, eggs laid later or in the fall will enter diapause (winter dormancy) and those can be put in the fridge.) my eggs have been in my fridge for a bit under a year (they were laid in June/August) and the batch I hatched out most recently is doing great. Each female can lay a couple hundred eggs so I've never needed to order any. My hatch rate with them warmer was much higher than at room temp (around 70) but they didn't compleatly fail like the guides would suggest. Around 80 is working best for me, but I don't think you'd need a fancy expensive incubator to keep them warm enough.

Maybe some strains are more fragile but aside from some cold snaps when our heat went out mine seem to do fine. I've forgoten to feed them and they were fine. I've droped their container and spilled them out on the floor and they were fine. I've had to take them on trips with me and they were fine.

 

[graceface]

When the silks morphed into moths did you move them to where you wanted the eggs to be laid? And did they mate and lay eggs almost immediately? Cause I would think they would just fly away as moths haha.

Did they just lay eggs in a simple Tupperware container? The thing that confuses me most is if they should have humidity or not.

 

[Taterbug]

They can't fly actually, and don't crawl that far. I put the cocoons in a tub so when they emerge it's easy for them to find each other. They mate right away and sometimes the males will wait on top of the cocoon while the female is emerging. When they pair up I put them in a toilet roll tube stood on end ontop of a index card to control where the female will lay.

They need more humidty as little things and to hatch. I use a damp towel in the corner of the tub and leave the lid open a little. It seems to be enough. After they are 2nd or 3rd instar (white) they don't need the damp paper.

 

[Taterbug]

I wrote up a guide I can post later for you if you want.

 

[graceface]

That toilet paper roll is genius! So she would lay her eggs on the card stock then you would place that in the Tupperware with the wet paper towel to hatch?

 

[graceface]

If you could post it that would be amazing!

 

[Taterbug]

What has worked for me...I use tupperwares as containers, the plastic grid stuff for yarn art works well as a poop screen when they are bigger. I put the lid on with one corner and a bit of wet tissue for humidity until they hatch. Keeping the tub upside down also helps the condensation run down the walls instead of onto the caterpillars. When I first hatched them I kept them next to the heat light on my snake cage. I put them in my dragon cage this time (it's really tall and has a shelf in it) and they are doing very well. It may take some creativity to find "just the right" place. Just sitting on my snake cage I get between 50-75%+ hatch rate, but cold snaps/drafts were a problem. I'm not so worried because all the eggs have been free. If I bought them I might try to be more consistent. I haven't used an incubator but they do grow faster when warm.

I hatch about 25-50 eggs at a time but usually only have one batch going. They take a about a month to get to where they want to pupate so if you want a constant supply of a certain size hatch them out based on how many you want to feed. I start to feed them when they are about 1" and offer pupae and moths too for as much variety as possible. You can slow them down by feeding them less but this will make for weaker moths if you want to breed from them.

I bought a buch of powdered chow and mix it up as I need it. I make it thin (still working on that) and pour it into cake decorating bags. It takes about 1 bag for 25-50 worms. It seems to stay fresh and is easy to dispense from the bag. I dispense about enough for 1 day. Extra just makes clean up harder. I'd feed fresh mulberry leaves and maybe learn to make chow if I had a tree, but alas I don't.

If you start from moths if they breed in the spring the first batch of eggs should all hatch. If they breed later or in the fall the eggs will enter diapause and you can keep them in the fridge. If you buy eggs, they are either diapaused or ready to hatch - the seller should say if you can store them or not.

Diapaused eggs - for me it's one to two weeks from taking them out of the fridge to hatch. Eatch patch is one females eggs.

Eggs and 1st instar. Babies need a bit of extra food so it stays moist enough to eat.

I don't want to move them too much when they are really tiny so I keep them on the lid and shake off poo each morning when I add food.

When they are big enough that poo starts to be a problem it's probably good to switch them over to the screen. When they are little it's easy to shake off. They will crawl under the screen and try and wander off if they run out of food. Otherwise they just park it and eat.

If they outgrow the tub any plastic tote will work. I used plastic shoe boxes with my first big batch. Once they are bigger I leave the lid mostly or completely off, they respirate too much and a lid is too humid.

When they are ready to pupate you can give them toilet paper rolls to spin cocoons in. They will wander off to pupate if they can and there isn't a spot they like. I've had a few get into snake cage or spin on the edge of the table. The cocoons harden and I cut them out and put them in a bigger tub. As they emerge they get right to work. I take joined pairs out and put them on an index card with a toilet paper roll on it. This keeps them contained and controls where the female will lay eggs - some are not so careful and make a huge mess.

Hope that helps! I think as long as you can find a spot that's warm enough they hatch, it's not as crazy work as the care sheets imply.

 

[graceface]

Wow this is extremely helpful. Thank you so much! I'm going to order 100 silks and feed some of them off but I'll see if I can get a couple to lay eggs

 

[Taterbug]

Wow this is extremely helpful. Thank you so much! I'm going to order 100 silks and feed some of them off but I'll see if I can get a couple to lay eggs

I think that will work great! I wish you good luck! Try to save the biggest healthiest ones. I started with just 7 moths, but a few more is better to ensure a good chance at males/females and if they don't all emerge at the same time. The moths only live a couple of days, just long enough to mate and lay their eggs.
Considering the time of year, be prepared for most of the eggs to hatch.

With the eggs if they will hatch right away, start to see a little black spot (the head) develop and they will hatch shortly after that. They mostly hatch at sunrise.

If they turn dark after a few days like the ones in the photo they will need to be chilled before they hatch. I think I chilled for 1-2 months... But you could experiment. My guess is you'll have luck hatching right away since its still early spring.

 

[graceface]

You definitely simplified it for me compared to other sites I've searched so for that I am so grateful! :mrgreen:

I'll definitely let you know how it all ends up working out for me!

 

[kingofnobbys]

I've had a go at raising silkworms - bought some eggs and some deccicated chow.

Worked OK.

But I've found the baby silkworms are better off started off eating new mulberry leafs initially (got to very clean and free of chemicals and DRY).

Bigger silkworms are real eating - pooing machines. They'll eat an enormous amount of mulberry leafs or chow each day but are very good as a food item for skinks and beardies.

The moths are good tucker too , my beardies loved the moths I gave them (which were only freshly dead after laying eggs or still alive).

I'd recommend buying a batch of eggs (usually come sticking to some paper) , placing them into a very clean and sterilised and dry takeaway food container (clear plastic) with some GladWrap over the top to keep nasty thieving baby roaches or little house out - they'll kill the baby worms or steal them if they discover them and can get to them).
Once they baby worms start hatching , in goes a fresh (young) mulberry leaf for the worms to munch on or a few small shavings of cooked chow.

Very important to keep the worm tub clean , removing poos and uneaten bits of leaf regularly as silkworms are susceptible to deseases and will die if the hygene is not good enough. The poos and uneaten stuff is good garden fertiliser.

If you let some of your worms pupate, in a few weeks you'll start getting moths emerging and you'll soon have your own eggs (I put my eggs into little glass sample bottles on the paper they are attached to) and refrigerate for a few months (about 7oC you don't want to freeze them) and then worm up the eggs to hatch them.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Wow this is extremely helpful. Thank you so much! I'm going to order 100 silks and feed some of them off but I'll see if I can get a couple to lay eggs

I think that will work great! I wish you good luck! Try to save the biggest healthiest ones. I started with just 7 moths, but a few more is better to ensure a good chance at males/females and if they don't all emerge at the same time. The moths only live a couple of days, just long enough to mate and lay their eggs.
Considering the time of year, be prepared for most of the eggs to hatch.

With the eggs if they will hatch right away, start to see a little black spot (the head) develop and they will hatch shortly after that. They mostly hatch at sunrise.

If they turn dark after a few days like the ones in the photo they will need to be chilled before they hatch. I think I chilled for 1-2 months... But you could experiment. My guess is you'll have luck hatching right away since its still early spring.

I did exactly that, I kept about 20 aside to pupate (well they pupated before I could feed them all to my lizards), a few weeks on and I had thousands of eggs in little bottles in the door racks of the fridge, and a few months on I started hatching my eggs (about 500 at a time and 4 -5 weeks on the worms were big and plump and ready to go to the lizards).

I believe you can blanch silkworms to feed to lizards too (in the offseason) but haven't tried.

I tried canned cooked silkworms ONCE and none of my lizards would touch them, even the wild skinks outside turned their noses up at them.

Been told you can keep the eggs chilled for up to 2 years and still have worms hatch. I'm testing that now - had a week without electricity due to a very big Tasman Sea Low (was hurricane strength) and knocked down lots of trees and power lines about 3 weeks ago. Will see if any of the eggs from 2013 hatch - been out of the fridge for 3 weeks and no worms yet.