stuff at the bottom of silkworm set up

John33871

New Member
ok does anyone know where to get that stuff with the little hole in it that you put the food and worms on, and lets the silkworms poo fall threw? i looked at the dollars store which someone told me and they didnt have any. any help would be great thanks again
 
What I think you are asking about is called "plastic canvas". It is an arts&crafts item used for yarn needlecraft. It is stiff plastic with holes for the waste to fall through. It is very washable, and makes keeping silkworms a breeze. I purchased mine at walmart, but believe it could be purchased at any craft store, or fabric store. For the smaller silk worms you will need to place a layer of screen fabric over the plastic canvas, or else the worms will fall through.
 
There are 2 different kinds. The type that is referred to in the article on chameleonnews.com is, as gesang said, plastic canvas and can be found at any store that has a craft section (or a craft store). it comes in #10 mesh or #7 (10 holes per square inch or 7/sq. in). You want 7 (more common) it comes in a few different sizes (and lots of colors! see link), too but the larger are harder to find. I line my roach and cricket tank bottoms with 2 layers of it and the frass falls thru - keeps them cleaner a lot longer!

The mesh that you find in the hornworm and silkworm pods you get from Coastal and Mulberry Farms is Plastic Hardware Cloth.

The frass does not fall thru once the caterpillars get larger, but it still makes for easy cleanup. Hope this helps!.

lele
 
I've tried to use a small mesh wire screen found at home depot
it's not perfect as the larger and medium sized worms can make their way
to the underside and drop down into my catch tray

I've also noticed how they'll nibble upon the wire from time to time.
since I don't know what that wire is an alloy of
I'm not going to recommend that other people use any such thing.

But this leads to my question.
with the craft stitch canvas won't the silkies also try to consume that
has anyone else noticed any middling?

I would hate to poison my chams with heavy metals
but I would also hate to feed them plastics too.
 
Ive never seen my silks eat it. Even with no food in there, they leave it alone. Seems quite safe to me.
 
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