Here are some photos of my hornworm project
- Thread starter suzi
- Start date
suzi
Avid Member
That little sorry excuse for a plant in the baking pan is the tomato plant, it completely wilted but I left it in there for the smell to stimulate egg laying. I had about 100 eggs from 4 moths, I believe I only had one female. Out of that only about 40 hatched, I am not sure if the rest have yet to hatch or if they won't. Only time will tell. It has been a fun and interesting project though 
suzi
Avid Member
That is super cool! So how many did you start with and how many moths did you get? Did the moths drink well from the hummingbird feeder? Have you gotten any eggs? BTW if you have an extra 2x2x4 cage aren't you obligated to put another cham in it?
I witnessed 1 of them drinking from the feeder and some of them trying to but not able to get it, I think next time I will add a cup for them to reach easier maybe. And lol to the obligation
I have a few cages, a couple of Kamz on the way, a bunch in the incubator and a heck of a lot more that I want, including a bigger house to keep them in!
suzi
Avid Member
No the tomato plant was for the moths to lay eggs on, so I wouldn't have to search the whole cage for the eggs
it wasn't to bad picking them off the mesh. The smell of the plant stimulates egg laying also
Leroux2008
Member
You realy do have a great setup! I just got some silks in and two coocoons already so looks like... ill be raising silkworms XD As long as I dont do something to condemn them.... I mean im suprised the ones that lived actually lived since half the box was dead. My first set of silkworms were alive when thehy got here but I think I had fried those or did something wrong they ended up dieing. Im not sure how long these are going to live being they were in the box for a while with the dead ones.
suzi
Avid Member
Congrats Leroux! Yeah, I ordered 1000 silkworm eggs from mulberry a few months back and killed 980
! I fed off 15 and let 5 cocoon, which 4 turned into moths. I got lucky to have had 2 males and 2 females that laid quite a few hundred eggs. They haven't hatched yet and they are slate color so I am a bit perplexed keep me posted on your project. I still don't really understand the "one" and "two" generations of silkies and when to put them in the fridge. I have been talking a bit to lady silkworm about it to try and understand. She said to leave them room temp for a month then refrigerate, but not to refrigerate the slate colored ones, which most of mine are. Hopefully I will get it all sorted out! Let me know how your doing with yours
Leroux2008
Member
Ya I as just reading something on someone elses thread... it is quite confusing! All I got is hjsut like u said... wait a month... some will hatch some will not.... The grey ones are supposidly supposed to hatch adn to put the brown and purple ones in the refrigerator in a ziploc bag in the crisper drawer because they went into diapause.... do u know how long we leave them in there for? I am so glad that atleast some of them made it alive! I awas also like.... woo I got two coocoons... lol my coocoons are yellow cause I have tiger silks but one of the coocoons has like brown areas on it. Do u htink he released his fluids after he coocooned? do u think that will kill him?
Leroux2008
Member
whoops meant to say zebra silkworms not tiger XD
suzi
Avid Member
As far as I know they only release the fluid when they come out. Yours is probably ok. I know lady silkworm told me the zebras are two generations. I put them in a plastic Tupperware with mesh at the bottom, the food and worms over the mesh with toilet paper rolls cut in 1/2 laying horizontally, and as they cocooned I removed each cocoon with roll and put it into a separate container lined with paper towel, to keep the cocoons free of grass and such. How many worms do you have left?
BillandKaren
New Member
nice setup but i would remove the vines try to keep it simple when they start laying it will be a chore to find them.
suzi
Avid Member
Yeah the vines were still in there from my chameleon I had in there. That batch already laid eggs and the eggs that were laid on vine would break when I tried to take them off, luckily most were laid on the mesh. I heard that they need someplace to rest on which is why I left some in there, but I think you're right I should remove them for the next batch or maybe just leave one small one in there.
BillandKaren
New Member
mine will sleep on the bottom we also use a fake plant my wife made and they sleep on it.
Leroux2008
Member
6 Silks and 2 coocoons. They are still kickin and eatin the fresh leaves I gave them. I messaged ladysilkworm and she said that they most likely arent gonna make it being that they were in such bad condition being with the dead ones for sooo long.. like she shipped em on the 8th I just got the call that they were in. I really do hope they make it though Right now I got them in like a cricket carrier thing without the tubes and without the lid. I put some paper towel at the and the food on top and some paper towel rolls for when they want to coocoon. I put the paper towel so I can make cleaning a little easier. Ima get a seperate container though so once the ycoocoon Ican move the coocoons to there. Right now I dont think the coocoons I have are going to emerge anythime soon so I put them in there with them. on their little piece of cardboard I cut them out on.
VeiledChams
Avid Member
Rather than having the plant inside like you did, could I just get the leaves and rub them against the box in which I have the moths? That still leaves the smell, so I'm guessing it should work, right?
suzi
Avid Member
Yes, you could wrap the leaves in cheesecloth or something like that and hang the bags in the cage, or I even read of someone just leaving the plant outside the cage, at first I put the plant inside another small mesh cage which I placed in the bigger cage.
lumbasammler
New Member
Does that work well for you?
I´m about to try breeding hornworms in germany where the hornworm chow is not available so this may help.
