SSimsswiSS
Avid Member
Just had a batch of moths hatch, so snapped these pics. on the way out the door this morning.
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Silkmoths
- Thread starter SSimsswiSS
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Sancho
New Member
Dang Steve that's alot! I had problems with just 10 lol. How are you going to collect the eggs?
SSimsswiSS
Avid Member
I'll stick egg crates in for the females to lay on, and or semi clean cacoons. I use to play around with waxpaper but too time consuming.
Sancho
New Member
sandrachameleon
Chameleon Enthusiast
SSimsswiSS in the first pic it looks like all the cocoons are loose. What do you give the catepillars to cocoon on, and do you then somehow remove the cocoons from that medium?
Sancho Why would having the eggs stuck to wax paper effect their hatching?
Recently I tried keeping moths long enough to mate for the first time. They mated, laid eggs on the papertoweling, toilet paper cardboard tubes, sticks etc - anything that was in the little tank the cocoons and moths were in. All the eggs hatched, without my doing anything whatsoever. Ended up with a heck of a lot of silkworms, more than I wanted to feed. Thankfully I have small mantella frogs I could feed many small silkworms off to! Anyhow I think next time I shall refridgerate half the eggs, see if I spread the bounty out. I was just going to put the bits of paper etc in the fridge in a plastic container. If there was something the eggs could be easily removed from, that would be great, as it woudnt take so much fridge space.
Sancho Why would having the eggs stuck to wax paper effect their hatching?
Recently I tried keeping moths long enough to mate for the first time. They mated, laid eggs on the papertoweling, toilet paper cardboard tubes, sticks etc - anything that was in the little tank the cocoons and moths were in. All the eggs hatched, without my doing anything whatsoever. Ended up with a heck of a lot of silkworms, more than I wanted to feed. Thankfully I have small mantella frogs I could feed many small silkworms off to! Anyhow I think next time I shall refridgerate half the eggs, see if I spread the bounty out. I was just going to put the bits of paper etc in the fridge in a plastic container. If there was something the eggs could be easily removed from, that would be great, as it woudnt take so much fridge space.
Sancho
New Member
Not sure if they were fertile. I left them on the wax paper since they were stuck to it and then were green when they came out and brown a few hours later and no activity from them yet been over 2 weeks.
ColorCham427
Avid Member
i hate how they die so quickly, they really are adorable lol. cant waste em though ;]
SSimsswiSS
Avid Member
TP rolls, soda flats, mulberry leaves/branches.
They don't have any mouth parts, so no eating. Just mate, lay eggs and die. They live a few days, one week tops.The moths must have a heck of a short life span if thy come out breeding!
Give them more time. Add humidity / heat. The eggs will start to look like mini donuts right before hatch. It's the tiny dark worm outline inside the egg before breaking out.
chambabysitter1
New Member
Do you have to refrigerate them? or can you just let them sit out after they turn black?
I got a handful of moths right now doing the deed. I was gone while they hatched, so they've already started laying eggs on absolutely everything in the bin.
I got a handful of moths right now doing the deed. I was gone while they hatched, so they've already started laying eggs on absolutely everything in the bin.
SSimsswiSS
Avid Member
Not necessarily. Many people hatch them straight through, without putting them in the frige. I leave out what I want to use, and can delay the others for a month or two by refrigerating.
AncientCritters
Established Member
I had a couple of moths in the cages and they laid eggs on the screen. After some days I had baby silkies crawing around.
