silkworm eggs started hatching, too late to chill rest ?

[CooperDragon]

Toothpick and small brush is a good idea, I'll give that a shot, thanks!

 

[mommacude]

Toothpick and small brush is a good idea, I'll give that a shot, thanks!

Glad I could help you for once ?

 

[kingofnobbys]

I got another order of silks yesterday, but they are quite small (still much to small for Darwin although he'd probably say otherwise). They came in cups with plastic ladders so they're difficult to get out into the main tub. I'm wary of picking them up due to their size. I don't want to wind up hurting or killing them while trying to move them to the tub. I have paper towel at the bottom of the tub and I've made up a large batch of chow that should get them through the month easily. For now I've just tipped the two cups sideways and put the chow in the middle hoping they'd crawl out on their own to go eat. How do you handle such tiny worms? I ask because I figure even if I get them out of the cups I'm going to need to change the paper towel and get the poops out. With the larger ones I'd just pluck them all out of the tub, dump the liner and the poop, put down fresh liner, and put them back in.

They look large enough to gently pick up with your fingers, just don't squeeze/squash them in the process.

You can probably shake them out of their cups if you do it gently and they don't fall very far.

Mommacude is correct on the toothpick/small brush technique for tinnyweenie baby silkworms, that method works (I use it).

 

[CooperDragon]

I was able to get them out using a toothpick and taking my time. They're chomping away at their chow with only a couple of dieoffs. Some of them are large but some of them are still super tiny little guys. Next challenge is to move them around to clean the bin. I may wind up just moving them to one side and cleaning one area at a time.

 

[kingofnobbys]

I was able to get them out using a toothpick and taking my time. They're chomping away at their chow with only a couple of dieoffs. Some of them are large but some of them are still super tiny little guys. Next challenge is to move them around to clean the bin. I may wind up just moving them to one side and cleaning one area at a time.

I have two identical silkworm tubs , I essentially use one on Mon, the other Tues , cleaning letting dry completely overnight, etc .... so it's just a matter of putting fresh paper towel into line the "spare" and adding fresh leaves or chow , then just a matter of transferring the worms .

 

[mommacude]

I was able to get them out using a toothpick and taking my time. They're chomping away at their chow with only a couple of dieoffs. Some of them are large but some of them are still super tiny little guys. Next challenge is to move them around to clean the bin. I may wind up just moving them to one side and cleaning one area at a time.

I have two identical silkworm tubs , I essentially use one on Mon, the other Tues , cleaning letting dry completely overnight, etc .... so it's just a matter of putting fresh paper towel into line the "spare" and adding fresh leaves or chow , then just a matter of transferring the worms .

This netting that I got from ladysilkworm helps me to move the worms out for cleaning. It feels sort of rubbery, like the stuff you put under rugs to keep them from slipping. It's lightweight so in theory you could lay another layer of it on top with new leaves so they crawl up. Right now mine are still pretty small so they're not moving much. However, it does help me lift it out so I can clean and change out the paper towels. I have to watch for them falling down through, I just pick up the ones that dropped and put them back on top before I clean the paper towels.

 

[CooperDragon]

I thought about setting some kind of netting in place with a removable tray cut out of the bottom, but it's tougher with the chow. I don't have access to the leaves so there are just clumps of chow along the paper towel that they eat away at. I've been moving them all to a new paper towel, I dump the dirty one, and just plop them back down in the bin new towel and all.

 

[mommacude]

I need to do my next batch with chow unless I find more trees. There are several on my property at work but they sold some land and fenced off most of it. I could only find one tree outside the fence so far. Major bummer.

 

[kingofnobbys]

I thought about setting some kind of netting in place with a removable tray cut out of the bottom, but it's tougher with the chow. I don't have access to the leaves so there are just clumps of chow along the paper towel that they eat away at. I've been moving them all to a new paper towel, I dump the dirty one, and just plop them back down in the bin new towel and all.

Try cutting a lump of chow off , placing it between 2 layers of plastic cling film/ baking paper or even thin clear plastic sheets , then using a rolling pin to press it / roll it nice and thin and flat.... This is what I do when using chow rather than leaves.

(the reason I form up small amounts of chow (say 40g of powder per batch) into "sausage" shaped "logs" of ready to use chow).

This kind of mesh is what I want to try with my next silkworm raising campaign , soon I hope if the eggs from Feb hatch. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/262154646770?lpid=107&chn=ps
I'll also try it with superworms too.

 

[kingofnobbys]

There be baby silkworms in those bottles !

3 of 8 of my sample bottles of eggs from Feb/Mar that have been in the fridge until a couple weeks ago (c/- my darling 5 yr old grandson's wee temper tantrum and discovery of wall switches) started hatching overnight. I guess about 600 eggs ?

They and the unhatched eggs (stuck on pieces of paper towelling) from those 3 bottles have been transferred to my baby silkworm raring tub with some thawed out blanched young / soft mulberry leaf.
We'll see if they take a liking to blanched frozen then thawed mulberry leaf over the next day or 2.

I can always make up a small batch of silkworm chow if the blanched leaf is refused by them

 

[CooperDragon]

Exciting! Hopefully they do well and there will be yummy treats for the kids soon =)

 

[mommacude]

I'm wondering if this bottle would work OK. I got it with cleaning solution concentrate in it. The stuff you use to clean the cages with. If I'm sure to rinse it super well maybe. Then I have to figure out how to get the eggs off the TP rolls right? Or do you put the eggs still on the paper inside? The bottle is small probably like 3 tablespoons.

 

[kingofnobbys]

I'm wondering if this bottle would work OK. I got it with cleaning solution concentrate in it. <<<< I think you'll have fun getting the hatching eggs on paper / paper towel pieces back out and a devil of time extracting any worms who are under the shoulder of the glass bottle out.

The stuff you use to clean the cages with. <<<< I use F10 SPRAY (1:150 dilution of the F10 CONCENTRATE) for all my insect and lizard and even some household cleaning/sterilisation jobs.
If I'm sure to rinse it super well maybe. <<<< I suspect that it may be difficult to remove all the cleaner solution from the glass, some is likely to be left on the glass as a film and this might slowly evaporate killing any eggs in there - I think you'd need to heat the bottle up in oven to bake off all the cleaner solution , a risky dangerous operation as you don't know how the bottle will tolerate oven temperatures and then cooling in the air - is likely to shatter.
Then I have to figure out how to get the eggs off the TP rolls right? Or do you put the eggs still on the paper inside? The bottle is small probably like 3 tablespoons. <<<< leave the eggs on the paper, when my moths emerge I transfer them into a paper towel lined (bottom + sides) tub , they then lay the eggs on the paper towel, I simply cut the egg laden sheets up with a pair of scissors and roll them loosely then slip them into the sample bottles.
You risk squashing/ killing the eggs by trying to remove them from the paper they are laid on.

I believe the lady at PeacefulSilkworms uses large glass petre dishes to her eggs when chilling them into dormancy..

More eggs hatched overnight , now more than half my bottles of eggs have producing worms , I think I'll be looking into blanching and freezing some of my excess silkworms as I'll have too many worms to use as feeders (literally thousands of eggs to hatch) and I only need maybe 40 worms to produces cocoons and then moths so I can restock with silkworm eggs.

The blanched mulberry leaves from yesterday are still "fresh to the feel" and show some signs that worms have eaten some, will not know for sure if they like the processed leaves until they start to skeletonise them.

 

[mommacude]

I'm wondering if this bottle would work OK. I got it with cleaning solution concentrate in it. <<<< I think you'll have fun getting the hatching eggs on paper / paper towel pieces back out and a devil of time extracting any worms who are under the shoulder of the glass bottle out.

The stuff you use to clean the cages with. <<<< I use F10 SPRAY (1:150 dilution of the F10 CONCENTRATE) for all my insect and lizard and even some household cleaning/sterilisation jobs.
If I'm sure to rinse it super well maybe. <<<< I suspect that it may be difficult to remove all the cleaner solution from the glass, some is likely to be left on the glass as a film and this might slowly evaporate killing any eggs in there - I think you'd need to heat the bottle up in oven to bake off all the cleaner solution , a risky dangerous operation as you don't know how the bottle will tolerate oven temperatures and then cooling in the air - is likely to shatter.
Then I have to figure out how to get the eggs off the TP rolls right? Or do you put the eggs still on the paper inside? The bottle is small probably like 3 tablespoons. <<<< leave the eggs on the paper, when my moths emerge I transfer them into a paper towel lined (bottom + sides) tub , they then lay the eggs on the paper towel, I simply cut the egg laden sheets up with a pair of scissors and roll them loosely then slip them into the sample bottles.
You risk squashing/ killing the eggs by trying to remove them from the paper they are laid on.

I believe the lady at PeacefulSilkworms uses large glass petre dishes to her eggs when chilling them into dormancy

Thank you! Now I get the picture. Sounds simple. Better to do it this way than put in sandwich bags and risk them getting squished by vegetables in my fridge. Thank you!

 

[mommacude]

Found these on eBay. Seems like they'll work.