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I lied. The moths are all MALES, not females. I found better pictures online and they clearly are the male variety.

Final update to my 2026 silkworm experiment. I had (as of this AM) 11 moths emerge over the past week, 3ish weeks after they started cocooning. Every single one has been female. So I have a tote of lonely girls slowly dying off. I started with 36 cocoons in total, though at least 10 of those...

I looked up those diseases (and others in silkworms) and I can say with confidence it was Flacherie. The symptoms match my situation exactly, from cause to behavior to appearance.

I just saw gutter guard suggested as a cocooning media as well, so I had already ordered some. I will use that for my larger worms on the next run. I had been using plastic needlepoint fabric and it worked until this last week, when the poop got too big to go through. As I understand it...

Four of the remaining worms were firm and active when touched. So I pull them and gave them some chow.

Healthy worms Sept 6 Last of them today. Mandatory baby chameleon pic tax. Not mine, at the local reptile store.

Well, like I said, everything was a-ok. Worms were a nice white, very plump and firm, and eating like it was the last mulberry tree on the planet. Then I had a couple worms start to spin in the top corners of the tote, and when I opened the tote I ripped their work up (didn't have a choice)...

That makes me feel better. I'm guessing that once I let the bin get wet by not pulling the leaves that weren't eaten, they got sick. Next time I'll know.

Well, the whole experiment ended poorly. Massive die off of the remaining worms, my fault for not cleaning out the uneaten leaves quickly enough. I pulled out the 2 dozen or so that were still alive and put them on a few fresh leaves, and took the ones that were wandering and put them in egg...

Is the tote you move them to open top? I assume they can't get out, right? Another question that I can't get a firm answer to...Claude gave me this info, which I was able to mostly verify: Whether the eggs your moths lay go into diapause isn't purely about temperature/light you control after...

OK, we're getting to showtime in my office. LOL. Some have started spinning and I have spread the worms out across three different totes with three different ideas for them. I put in a bunch of leaves in each of their totes, but not much eating was happening so I stopped adding a couple days...

Sorry, I meant if they turn gray, put them in the fridge to diapause. If not, just let them hatch.

Excellent explanation. So what does this all mean? If the eggs turn gray, toss in the freezer, and if they don't, just let them hatch?

I'm reading that some eggs go into diapause and some simply don't. Is there a logic to that? I don't mind as long as good share do, I'll just raise the others right away. But 1000s hatching all at once for one chameleon is a bit much.

Revising an old thread, but hoping that some of the contributors are still around. I'm going to have a whole mess of 5th instar silkworms in about a week and I'd like to try letting some cocoon and mate, but I have no idea how to set that up. My searches for that information led me here...

The 'real' product is 80/20 Aluminum Extrusion https://8020.net/. There are several knockoff products as well. If you are into DIY, its a real rabbit hole to go down. Its a grown-up's lego world.

I built mine out of leftover materials I had sitting around. 2x2x5. Frame is made of 80/20 aluminum, covered in polycarbonate sheets. The inside was then covered in cork bark and foamed in place.