Bionic Silkworms

[jajeanpierre]

I went to feed the silkworms in the gracilior's enclosure. I was a little disappointed that the fake bendy vines seemed to be falling apart....until I had a closer look. The silkworms have been eating them!

 

[distortionz]

And they say these guys are picky and won't eat anything but mullberry lol

 

[jajeanpierre]

Of all the silkworms, the bionic ones--the ones that ate the plastic--were by far the biggest and the fattest. They weren't the ones pictured. The ones in the picture were new, without the benefit of plastic. I've taken the bionic ones out so my poor gracilior isn't eating plastic silkworms.

 

[ChamDE86]

Wow, these guys have no fear! Are they much hardier than the regular/zebra ones? I'm having terrible luck with them dying off.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Wow, these guys have no fear! Are they much hardier than the regular/zebra ones? I'm having terrible luck with them dying off.

This group I bought (from Coastal in Florida) had none die that I ever found. I'm sure the odd one died and got lost in the silk, but they were really tough.

I wonder if yours had some sort of infection--viral or bacterial. I have a bunch of newly imported wild caughts. Anything that goes into their cage doesn't come out, so if a bug goes in, it stays in and I feed it there. The silkworms regularly try to commit suicide by leaping off great heights--wait a minute, maybe they think they are Superman???? I keep picking them up and putting them on a platform of some sort, but they get pretty banged up and still live. They are a lot tougher than I expected.

 

[ChamDE86]

You'll eventually find them all wearing capes and flying around the cage.

 

[xraygirl]

I've found that crickets will eat those Fluker's bendy vines....

 

[jajeanpierre]

I've found that crickets will eat those Fluker's bendy vines....

The silkworms that ate the plastic bendy vines are HUGE when compared to the ones fed the nice expensive silkworm food... Very scary.

 

[repdog]

That is weird to me. I can't seem to get mine to grow right now. They are just over a month old and just very small.