silk worms got them now what

[whereswaldo]

ok so he loves them im just wandering storage and taking car of them i searched and al i reallly seen was some thing saying they poop alot lol. i got a small cup of 60 small ones there tiny man. but how do i keep them alive im not going to piut them in the fridge yet cause i dont think i was supposed to.
so yea what now.

 

[carol5208]

in a cup that came with food or no food?

 

[whereswaldo]

with food 2 week suply i think

 

[carol5208]

just clean out the poop. Keep at room temp. put cup on table or whereever lid DOWN. Food should be on top so poop falls to bottom on lid. Take off lid, empty out poop.

 

[ryanra22]

just clean out the poop. Keep at room temp. put cup on table or whereever lid DOWN. Food should be on top so poop falls to bottom on lid. Take off lid, empty out poop.

I've heard this a few times and I'm having a hard time visualizing it. So you just essentially flip the cup upside down so the lid is on the table? And then to clean what would you do just flip the bottom of the lid right side up put the worms in that then clean the lid??

Just ordered some that's why I'm asking

 

[carol5208]

no, what I do is put a paper towel underneath and just take the lid off and let the poop fall out. Shake the lid out, wipe the poop off the lid if you need to. You are gonna have to clean the poop out of that little trellis thing too cause it gets caught up in there. You can remove the silks and lay the on a papertowel or put them in another cup or whatever. They will spin silk and it will make like a net in the trellis and the poop will get all caught up in it. I don't use cups anymore for that reason. They say easy cleaning, but I think it i a pain in the butt!

 

[ryanra22]

Ahhh got ya thanks! Ya I think I'm gonna go with the plastic bin idea from the silkworms 101 thread

 

[whereswaldo]

omg i jus got home and read this i flipped it immediatly and it sounded like a baby rattle im thingking poop lol its to late to mess with it had a long hard day, ill get it in the am i didnt realize they reqire this much man waldo u bter love me hahah u said carol that you didnt use a cup anymore what do you use? if its a concoction can you posta pic??

 

[carol5208]

No special concoction, just a large round tupperware container. You dont even need a lid, they won't crawl out. I line the bottom with a papertowel or nothing. The pain is you gotta clean it and you have to pick the worms apart from the silk and poop. Yuk! No matter which way it is a pain, whether it be the cup or any other way. Make sure you wash your hands always BEFORE you handle them and of course after!!!

 

[Rottsko]

No special concoction, just a large round tupperware container. You dont even need a lid, they won't crawl out. I line the bottom with a papertowel or nothing. The pain is you gotta clean it and you have to pick the worms apart from the silk and poop. Yuk! No matter which way it is a pain, whether it be the cup or any other way. Make sure you wash your hands always BEFORE you handle them and of course after!!!

i got tired of cleaning the poop, silk, seperating the worms. etc. so i stopped getting silkies for now. i agree w/ carol and the cotainer way is the way to go vs the habitat cups. you still have to clean the container and stuff but much easier to clean than the habitat cups.

 

[Miss Lily]

The pain is like Carol said - separating them from the leftover food, poop and silk that they spin on everything! I currently have 21 cricket tubs of them in varying sizes and now they are getting bigger they need cleaning and feeding every day and it takes a good couple of hours to get through them all! I have a pair of tweezers that I only use for them and sterilise them in boiled water before each tub. You can't be too careful with them, as grasserie can wipe out the whole lot of them very quickly!

I cut plastic canvas to size and wedge it into the cricket tubs so that the poop falls through. They need to be kept clean and hate sitting in their own poop (don't we all, lol)!!

 

[Rottsko]

holy crap! 21

 

[Miss Lily]

I had approx 250 hatch out all at once on 16th December! I keep them in the livefood tubs as I mentioned above, but I don't like to overcrowd them. The biggest silks are only 5 to a tub and they look crowded! They are huuuge and horrible, I just want them to pupate now, lol!

 

[whereswaldo]

sheesh what did i get myself into.

 

[melric]

Just feed them off quickly.

 

[Miss Lily]

I don't normally have this many at once, lol! Hopefully once this lot have pupated and laid eggs I can control the hatching as and when I want to! About three quarters of them are way too big for Monty now, so Amy is eating them, but some are even too big for her to tackle!

 

[JackP308]

Are the habitat cups just like hornworm cups. Is it basically the same care. I think those are relatively easy to clean the pre made cups. Just open the lid shake and done. Right?

 

[Rottsko]

Are the habitat cups just like hornworm cups. Is it basically the same care. I think those are relatively easy to clean the pre made cups. Just open the lid shake and done. Right?

Correct but the silks require a little more work bc they spin silk and the worms and frasse get stuck on it. You have To separate them from the frasse and silk.

 

[JackP308]

Correct but the silks require a little more work bc they spin silk and the worms and frasse get stuck on it. You have To separate them from the frasse and silk.

ok sounds good , I was always curious what the deal was with them. We have hornworm cups sold locally but never silks so I haven't order any ever. One day Id like to though.

 

[whereswaldo]

ok sounds good , I was always curious what the deal was with them. We have hornworm cups sold locally but never silks so I haven't order any ever. One day Id like to though.

id love to know the detais on horn worms surley if they grow quick its the same rate just ess mess ass silk worms omg the mess is so much. deffinatly worth 20 cents more a worm not to clean this much shit i just thought hornworms was that much bigger. pls i need pics can i ge small hornworms u know eggs but ill never order these worms again im not playing in poop every fricken day there too much tohel with hthat i serve food with these hands cant deal with these worms thinking about letting them goi got babies there huge!!!! im like sccared to feed them off even!!within 4 days i got some that are down rite intemiidating to me. im not tyig tomake my kids sick feeding them good food. back to pheonix worms crix and suppers with some meals and wax involved.