Silkworms galore! Calling all veterans!

[seanUTD]

So in my quest to give Stanley the greatest variety I now have woodlice, crickets, dubias, mealworms (trying to work through my stock to eliminate them) and I am now adding silkworms... I know there are good posts but I want to combine it all into this thread so here it goes

1) Housing instructions... How big? whats inside? organizing? etc...
2) Temperatures...
3) Breeding...
4) anything else I may need to know...

Im not in the habit of wasting money and time so I dont want to kill the little guys by doing some simple thing wrong... Plus I think this thread would make a great link for beginners like me wanting to raise silkies so who'll be first to help me out

 

[pssh]

Mulberry farms has all the info you need on their site.

 

[ndugan7]

silkworms rock, and are easy to breed! just keep everything clean. If you can find mulberry trees or bushes, you now have free food for them. Too bad i cant identify or find any mulberry trees myself...

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

This is hands down the best info I've found: http://www.wormspit.com/bombyxsilkworms.htm

Mulberry Farms has good info, but nothing like that. They will be a great place to buy worms or eggs to start though.

 

[Miss Lily]

This is hands down the best info I've found: http://www.wormspit.com/bombyxsilkworms.htm

Mulberry Farms has good info, but nothing like that. They will be a great place to buy worms or eggs to start though.

I discovered that website/blog at the weekend and was engrossed! I learnt a load of new things from that and have now bookmarked it.

 

[seanUTD]

SWEET I LOVE PICTURES!!! Lol thanks guys that worked great... So Im guessing putting them into a rubbermaid would be a little much? I saw a pic on here a WHILE back that showed a rubbermaid with paper towel rolls surrounding a pile of mulberry leaves with the worms in the middle... This is what I thought

 

[Texas Ranger]

I would buy eggs. And hatch them out as you need them. It is much more cost effective. And find a mullberry tree if you can. That chow can get expensive. We lucked out and have tons of full grown trees every where around us.

 

[seanUTD]

I would buy eggs. And hatch them out as you need them. It is much more cost effective.

Really? That saved me then... I was ready to jump into smalls! How would I "Hatch as I need them".. is there a way to slow them down?

 

[Texas Ranger]

They must be stored in the fridge. Then you take out how ever many eggs you want. Keep the eggs in a petrie dish. In a warm area. I keep mine right next to my BT Skinks heat light. They stay warm and hatch within a week or so. It can be a slow process at first. You need to have new eggs hatching out before you run out. The first couple of weeks they grow slow. But then BOOM. You have good feeder size.

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

However, the longer they're in the fridge the lower the hatch rate.

 

[seanUTD]

So when would they be right for a 5 month cham? And how many should I keep for a stable breeding to take place?

 

[seanUTD]

500 eggs ordered! And I got a lb of the chow... I wanted the leaves but I'm not confident enough to keep the leaves from rotting so I wont waste the money just yet... Plus I've heard they're not that hard to switch from chow to leaves so I've got some time

 

[Texas Ranger]

I start feeding them as soon as they can be seen. Like the size of a mealworm. I just put a pile in my hand and the chams get enough for a mouth full. They don't care how big they are. You just offer more when they are that small. For breeding that depends on how many eggs you want. One female silkworm CAN lay 30 to 100 eggs. But usally you don't know. I have don't 10 worms before. And up to 40 or so. Its up to you.

 

[seanUTD]

I start feeding them as soon as they can be seen. Like the size of a mealworm. I just put a pile in my hand and the chams get enough for a mouth full. They don't care how big they are. You just offer more when they are that small. For breeding that depends on how many eggs you want. One female silkworm CAN lay 30 to 100 eggs. But usally you don't know. I have don't 10 worms before. And up to 40 or so. Its up to you.

Thanks! Thats a big help... Any ideas on the proper housing Im still a wee bit confused on what exactly I can keep them in... Would a rubbermaid tub work if its shallow like 24"x12"x4" ?

 

[Shenzi Sixaxis]

500 eggs ordered! And I got a lb of the chow... I wanted the leaves but I'm not confident enough to keep the leaves from rotting so I wont waste the money just yet... Plus I've heard they're not that hard to switch from chow to leaves so I've got some time

It's the other way around. They'll eat chow fine. Switching from leaves to chow is hard. IMO, chow is best unless you have a room with a mulberry tree because of possible bugs, toxins, pesticides, ect that could get on the tree from the wind. Silkies are domesticated, so they are fragile to things like that.

 

[seanUTD]

I got my enclosure question answered.. Thanks guys

 

[Jamielee]

Thanks! Thats a big help... Any ideas on the proper housing Im still a wee bit confused on what exactly I can keep them in... Would a rubbermaid tub work if its shallow like 24"x12"x4" ?

well would a shallow rubbermaid tub work?

 

[clarkrw3]

Not saying it's right but I have mine in a shallow rubbermaid tub with holes cut out and screen over them for ventilation and spacers in the bottom with screen over the spacers so I can lift out the worms and chow without touching them and dump out the frass that falls through the screen (so far it seems to be working). I like the Pei wei containers she shows for the baby hatching worms in that site posted earlier in this thread too...might have to order some take out. lol

There use to be a really nice video on youtube about keeping silks but now I cannot find it...

 

[Miss Lily]

When I pupated some moths last year, I had about 5 of them I think. I did see some breeding going on, but not sure what the male to female ratio was. I did count the eggs though and I got 235 out of those few moths. Not all of the eggs have hatched yet though.

I didn't thhink about feeding more of the smaller worms at a time, I was thinking I would wait until they were big enough like the ones I buy online.

Silks are easier to change from chow to leaves from what I have read and I have offered leaves to chow eaters before. Just don't think it's so easy to get leaf fed worms back onto chow though.