Silkworm question

Sammag

Sammag

New Member
I was wondering, how many silkworms should i purchase to get a colony started? I was thinking of buying eggs and hatching them out. Also what size container would i keep the silkworms in and how much chow would this require?

One more question, how many eggs can a female silkmoth be expected to lay before she dies? Thanks.
 
yes...you dont want to much humidity with the worms..leave the top off the container..they will drown in the littlest bit of condensation in the cant crawl away.

leave the eggs in the fridge for a month...then take them out and put them under a light for a week or two....the temp should be around 80 to 84 degress..they will hatch out soon.
 
The only reason you'd want to refrigerate eggs, would be to delay their hatch date.

Extended refridgeration will will reduce the hatch rate percentage. They cant be kept cold forever.



If you are just starting out.... I would advise you to get 200 smalls and (2) 1lb containers of premade chow from Mulberry Farms, and see how you do.

The eggs do require more work and knowhow.
 
Thanks for all the replies. Yes this is my first colny and thus far ive had reccomendations of 200 and 50 silkworms to start a colony. Which one is more accurate? O by the way i have 5 leos and am looking to buy a panther chameleon just in case that info is required to estimate how many silkworms to start out with.

Also 500 eggs is quite alot for one female. At the longest how long wil i b able to store the excess eggs in the refrigerator, thanks.
 
well the eggs are put in the fridge to imitate the winter season...the eggs are laid in fall and hatch in spring...when there is a plenty full amount of leaves....the eggs can be kept in their for like a year or two...just a few eggs will die of for each year.
 
Yes this is correct. I had my eggs in the fridge for 3 months and have had a good hatch rate. Now i have hundreds of little babies to feed:D
 
Malicious said:
The only reason you'd want to refrigerate eggs, would be to delay their hatch date.
Click to expand...
Actually, that is not the only reason why. There are certain benefits that go beyond that in diapausing the eggs.
You want to deliberately put them into diapause in the fridge to simulate winter. I will briefly explain a bit why after Sandra's quote.


sandrachameleon said:
Im wondering why the fridge? I've never put eggs in the fridge.
Click to expand...

Did you have a 100% hatch rate with those eggs?
Or some died? I have kept both ways. Ones that I put in diapause, almost always hatch.. the one that I don't have higher death rate.

There is a difference in hormonal content between the diapaused and the non diapaused eggs:
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2108/zsj.16.935

This covers the reason why pretty extensively. Read pp 132 and 133
http://books.google.com/books?id=h4...jrmsDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8
 
I've had 100% hatch rate with my non-refridgerated eggs.
And of those silkworms hatched that I kept to cocoon and moth for next generation breeding, all has gone well. It seems to be pretty equal in terms of moth gendre too - so far there have been just a fewer more females than males (not a problem since the males seem capable of servicing more than one female).

HOWEVER it should be noted that I've not been doing this very long - just since the Fall. So, the temperature of the room would have been fairly chilly at night for those eggs. Between 64F and 69F. Maybe that helped.

I'll find out soon enough if refridgeration or at least a couple cool nights is helpful, or if its totally unnecessary. Ive had moths laying eggs all weekend and there will be more through the week. I already planned to leave half out (now the room is warm at night and hot during the day) and refridgerate the other half, since I only need so many at once. I'll compare to see if there's any difference in hatch out rates.

One moth in this last batch seemed to have trouble getting out of its cocoon, I helped it out, and found it to be semi-bald and ugly ugly. I fed it to a mantid instead of letting it breed. Question: Does this happen occassionally? That a moth will be deformed or have trouble getting out of the cocoon?
 
Last edited:
dodolah said:
Actually, that is not the only reason why. There are certain benefits that go beyond that in diapausing the eggs.
You want to deliberately put them into diapause in the fridge to simulate winter. I will briefly explain a bit why after Sandra's quote.




Did you have a 100% hatch rate with those eggs?
Or some died? I have kept both ways. Ones that I put in diapause, almost always hatch.. the one that I don't have higher death rate.

There is a difference in hormonal content between the diapaused and the non diapaused eggs:
http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.2108/zsj.16.935

This covers the reason why pretty extensively. Read pp 132 and 133
http://books.google.com/books?id=h4...jrmsDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8
Click to expand...


The links were informative, yet the only other benefit to diapausing eggs would pertain to Sericulture. Did I miss something, or was that what you were refering to?:confused:

There are several variables that can contribute to poor hatch rates.


-Jay
 
chameleon guy said:
I mean like paying for the chow since I don't have mulberry trees around here.
Click to expand...

Ah. Well yes the chow can be expensive over time. It does still work out cheaper for me to raise my own than to buy silkworms. I buy 5 pounds of dry powdered chow at a time, and mix up in small batches what I need. Once mine reach at least 1cm in length I start adding dandelion to their diet, so that I use less chow. But certainly you cant substitute alternatives for their regular diet. I might buy and plant a mulberry tree in the backyard. Im told the berries are tasty.

nwbrewbot said:
How soon can you feed silkies to a veiled? Has anyone used these as a staple diet?
Click to expand...

You can feed small silkies to a small veiled and large silkies to a large veiled. Although i personally hate the idea of a staple diet (believing instead that variety is important), Yes, silkworms could be used as a staple so long as something chintonous and gutloadable (such as crickets or superworms) are added in as well. The calories in silkworms come more from protein than fat, as is also the case with crickets. this is a good thing.
 
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Silk eggs

I've recently taken all of my silkworm eggs out of the fridge to hatch because my hatch rates were way down. Maybe it was my fridge temp but the eggs have deflated and only 8 eggs out of hundreds hatched. I only have one Jackson's so I was taking a few eggs out every couple of weeks and now the eggs are all ruined. I just ordered another 500 from Costal and will try to get a colony going again. I have a small white mulberry tree that I use to feed the larger silks. I don't have enough small new leaves to feed the newborns (They can't eat the tough mature leaves) so I start them on chow.

I've found that I get better hatch rates if I refrigerate the eggs for at least a month but have also just left the eggs out to hatch. There seems to be many variables at play in the hatch rates.
 
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