Silkworm Feeding

[zlew]

I'm looking into getting a mulberry tree to feed to my silkworms. Will they eat any variety? (White, black, red?) Does it matter if the tree is dwarf or not? Also, do they grow faster on leaves or chow?

 

[Andee]

Leaves just tend to be easier to feed because they don't mold like the chow. The worms also tend to like the leaves more. It's harder to get them switch over from leaves to chow however, and mulberry trees lose their leaves during the colder months. I think they will eat any variety as long as the leaves as younger. But most people feed the white variety if I am right.

 

[jajeanpierre]

Leaves just tend to be easier to feed because they don't mold like the chow. The worms also tend to like the leaves more. It's harder to get them switch over from leaves to chow however, and mulberry trees lose their leaves during the colder months. I think they will eat any variety as long as the leaves as younger. But most people feed the white variety if I am right.

Mine have not had any problem going between mulberry leaves and chow. They even ate the plastic bendy vines when I left them in an enclosure.

This spring I planted a commercial variety of mulberry, a Pakistan mulberry, and I have two native Texas mulberry bushes waiting for the soil to dry out before I can plant them. The silkworms eat both, young and old leaves. The trees aren't big enough to rely only on the leaves--I only use them to start the newly hatched silkworms. It makes it really easy to transfer them from the case they hatch in to a bigger container. I think one container of eggs could strip my 15 foot mulberry before they matured. They eat a surprising amount of leaves. Newly hatched silkworms will eat an entire leaf in short order.

 

[Kate]

When I can get leaves, I'm in UK,I freeze what I don't use for times when they are not available.