Silkworm Frustrations....

G

gotwqqd

Member
Im hugely disappointed with my attempts at raising silkworms.

My first batch of 500 eggs from Coastal hatched...almost every egg. I ended up with 40 survivors and after two months even some of these are small.

I exchanged some emails with the owner of Coastal about the raising. Made changes(cooking food longer so not as mushy so it could be grated, no cover whatsoever after hatching). A week after hatching it appears I have 2 tiny survivors.

Anyone out there that has great success that can give some things they have learned that lead to low mortality rate?

Temperature range?
humidity range?
times of day feeding(particularly right after hatching)?
is the grate size very important?
grate the food where?
size of tub?
anything on bottom of tub?
what size mesh and when to put in?

anything...
 
Recently, I've been having some die offs that I'm not used to and I don't know if it is my handling of them or not.

Make sure you keep your hands meticulously clean.

This is completely anecdotal and might be completely wrong, but my die offs seem to start if I do any handling of the colony. I've also had die offs when I fed fresh mulberry leaves and they didn't eat everything and mold started between the layers of leaves.

I also think I've been over crowding them. I've been hatching out 1000 at a time.

I now tend to not use any mesh on the bottom. I would like to use the same big square mesh they have in their kits, but I don't know what it is. I've looked in a few craft sections in stores but have never seen it.

I think humidity is an issue. I also think it is contagious. I've been tempted to find a different supplier, thinking it is a problem from the supplier but it just can't be. Eggs are not infected with anything.

I handle them with a wooden skewer. Hope that helps.
 
I hatch mine out in an uncovered Petri dish. I line up a row of eggs in the center and when they start hatching, I put food along both sides of the eggs.
image.jpeg

When most or all of the eggs are hatched, I move them (with a small soft paintbrush) into a larger open white dishwashing tub ($1 at Target). I put two layers of paper towels at the bottom and then two layers of I don't know what it's called - but it's soft and mesh like - used for holding rugs and carpeting in place. Available at Joann Fabrics or probably any place they sell fabric. I usually feed twice a day when they are young - I just grate the food right on top of them. When they get older, they just get fed once a day or every other day by laying a chunk of food in the container.
image.jpeg

I also think the humidity in my house must naturally be just right for them. If they hatch, I don't have any die-offs.

Hope some of this helps.

Deb
 
I bought one of those cheap "Reptibators" to hatch them in. My first attempt was a bit like your description: out of 500 eggs I got maybe 100 survivors. After switching to more frequent feedings with smaller portions -- the idea being to make sure the food is always fresh and not dried out -- subsequent batches have reached feeder size with only minimal loss.
 
I've had two batches of 250 die off after a few days. I don't get it either, other than like someone said.. Feed more often or humidity. It seems 12-16 hours after feeding the silks are dropping off the food looking for more, then dry up, but I stuck to the directions and the 24 hour feeding. I can't seem to kill the adults. I have dubbed myself the silkworm murderer. I can breed bananas roaches and crickets though!
 
jajeanpierre said:
Recently, I've been having some die offs that I'm not used to and I don't know if it is my handling of them or not.

Make sure you keep your hands meticulously clean.

This is completely anecdotal and might be completely wrong, but my die offs seem to start if I do any handling of the colony. I've also had die offs when I fed fresh mulberry leaves and they didn't eat everything and mold started between the layers of leaves.

I also think I've been over crowding them. I've been hatching out 1000 at a time.

I now tend to not use any mesh on the bottom. I would like to use the same big square mesh they have in their kits, but I don't know what it is. I've looked in a few craft sections in stores but have never seen it.

I think humidity is an issue. I also think it is contagious. I've been tempted to find a different supplier, thinking it is a problem from the supplier but it just can't be. Eggs are not infected with anything.

I handle them with a wooden skewer. Hope that helps.
Click to expand...
The mesh is gutter guard, you can find it at the hardware store in rolls of 6-10 ft.
 
Goose502 said:
The mesh is gutter guard, you can find it at the hardware store in rolls of 6-10 ft.
Click to expand...

The stuff I'm looking for is not the gutter guard.

This is what they sent with the kit I bought with my very first order. I think it comes from a craft store. I liked it because it had small holes but bigger than screen. Here's a (lousy) picture of it. I tried not to touch the tape measure to anything inside (bacteria fears) so it is actually about an inch above the orange screening so the holes are a little bigger than they appear in the picture.

The gutter screening's openings are too big when the worms are really little. Nylon window screen's holes are too small. It is too flexible and moves around too much even when fit exactly to the size of the tote.

20160418_084741.jpg
 
You can get that at any craft store. My local Dollar Store also carry's it. i pay $0.62 a sheet at dollar store. $0.99 at Micheals (craft store).
 
Ill let you in on my secret. Buy some "starsan" from a diy beer/wine brewer supply store. Just coat the entire container in the mixture, let it dry, and pop in your lovelies. Then keep a jar of starsan mixture next to the tub, any thing that touches the worms or food (hands or tongs) gets dipped in it first. Ive had a 99% success rate for the last 3 years using it.
 
nightanole said:
Ill let you in on my secret. Buy some "starsan" from a diy beer/wine brewer supply store. Just coat the entire container in the mixture, let it dry, and pop in your lovelies. Then keep a jar of starsan mixture next to the tub, any thing that touches the worms or food (hands or tongs) gets dipped in it first. Ive had a 99% success rate for the last 3 years using it.
Click to expand...
What is "starsan"? Is it some type of antibacterial?
 
KapitalJ said:
You can get that at any craft store. My local Dollar Store also carry's it. i pay $0.62 a sheet at dollar store. $0.99 at Micheals (craft store).
Click to expand...

But what is it called? I looked and didn't find it but didn't know where to look. I looked through the needle point area.
 
That plastic stuff is called plastic canvas and if you were in the needle point section you were close. They usually have it over with the yarn and needle point hoops! Good luck with your breeding efforts!
 
I haven't read through this thread but for the last few months i've had about a 95% hatch rate and have not had a single dead worm all the way up to feeding size.

I keep them on my kitchen counter (a regularly warm room in my house). I cut the middle out of a paper plate and put the eggs on that inside my keeper. As they hatch, I keep their food a little softer and squeeze a ring of food around the hatchlings, almost like piped icing. They all move to the ring.

In a day or two I squeeze another ring around that and they move on over again. Then I repeat. By the time I have the third ring they are all off the first and sometimes second, and the remainder is dry so I remove it.

At this point they are big enough to not fall through the mesh in my silk keeper so I put more solid food on the mesh and they migrate to the fresher food overnight typically, then I remove the paper plate.

I never handle with my hands. Once they are bigger I use delicate tongs and if i HAVE to touch them, I wear medical gloves just in case.

I find this way super low maintenance and I have not lost a single worm in months :)
 
jajeanpierre said:
But what is it called? I looked and didn't find it but didn't know where to look. I looked through the needle point area.
Click to expand...

It's called PLASTIC CANVAS. It's used when people crochet with the different colors of yarn and make things like tissue boxes and whatnot. See here for what it's actually used for: https://www.google.com/search?q=pla...ved=0ahUKEwiTmqr4mZvMAhWF8j4KHRyWBrQQ_AUIBygC

I have some of the same stuff, only mine is colored black (personal preference). I picked it up at my local Wal-Mart for like $2 for 3 sheets and it was in the artsy section where you would find paint, crayons, colored pencils, yarn, glue, and things of the such. They had quite a few to pick from as far as shape and quantity.

Here is a quick search on Wal-Mart's website: http://www.walmart.com/search/?query=plastic canvas sheets&cat_id=2637&typeahead=plastic canvas sheet

You may have to filter through all the results to find exactly what you need, or just visit a Wal-Mart (or any crafts store should have it - but keep in mind that a crafts store is probably going to charge you more for it, as that is what they are, a CRAFTS store). I just bought a pack of 3 black plastic canvas sheets, and I cut them to fit what I needed them to fit. They come in white, clear, black (and maybe other colors, but that is what was at my Wal-Mart) and they also come in packs of 3, 5, 6, 7.... Here is a link to the EXACT product that I bought: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Black-Plastic-Canvas-Sheets-3pk/38587654

The dimensions are 13.5" x 10.5 which is good to suit what I needed it for (hornworm containers and silkworm containers). I just cut it to fit and folded it a bit and sha-bam. Good to go. They come in larger sheets; they come in smaller sheets. They can come as super stiff sheets (for when you are crocheting something that needs to be a little stiff such as a tissue box) or they can come as softer sheets for simpler things. Mine is just the right stiffness as it bends pretty good to go into my worm bins, but it also holds pretty solid for when worms climb all over it.

Works great. Easy to use, and the frass from worms falls right through it. When the worms get bigger, their frass too, will be bigger, and will not go through the holes on the plastic canvas. No worries though: The canvas is PLASTIC and in my experience, nothing ever sticks to it. The frass just rolls down off of when it gets too big to fall through the holes IF you don't have it set up all flat-like. I have my canvas setup in a large plastic bin and I have it shaped like a small upside-down "U" shape instead of elevating it on something so it's flat like most people do. The way I have it, all the food is nearer the top of the container and they have to crawl up the upside-down "U" to get to it. They are now elevated as they eat and the poo just rolls off down the sides as they defecate. You can shape it like this, or you can elevate just one side of it and let the other side rest on the bottom of your bin. I'm sure you can figure it out (y)

I use them for smaller worms, and as the worms get bigger, I switch to gutter guard (http://www.lowes.com/pd_504913-1410-VX620_1z0uk6y__?productId=50031732&pl=1) as it has much larger holes to allow frass to fall through, as well as allowing the worms to easier access anywhere they want to go by crawling THROUGH the large holes in the mesh instead of crawling AROUND the mesh.

Hope this helps.
 
Last edited:
Andie said:
OK. I looked it up. Nightanole; what do you feed your worms? My eggs always hatch just fine, but after 2-3 months, there are maybe 10 worms left.
Click to expand...
I have a mulberry tree...
I didnt know silkies lived over 2 months. Even after they get to "good eatin size" and having every third day feeding ,they only last half a summer. I start in the end of May and they are a good size in 3 weeks, and are all cocooned or dead (rare) by July.
 
jajeanpierre said:
But what is it called? I looked and didn't find it but didn't know where to look. I looked through the needle point area.
Click to expand...
That is exactly where you'll find Walmart arts and craft section is white not red but it's used for making art with string.
 
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