The most annoying thing with silk worms

[ColorCham427]

When feeding them on the chow, separating them from the dry clumps that get left behind!!!

What are your methods as far as keeping the minimal amounts of crumbs?

When hatching silkworms, and giving them the chow as little fuzzies, even if you give them a tiny bit, with a grater, they'll still not finish it all without most of the chow getting hard as a rock.


Once they hit that 1/2 - 3/4 inch mark, should one just place the chow on one side of the container and let them all crawl to it? Hope that would work lol.

I love using mulberry leaves, NO smell, NO mess, and NO wetness so all my worms survive on a MUCH HIGHER rate!!!

 

[FroggtheCham]

I agree. That is a HUGE PIA!!! I have found that slicing the chow in thin layers is easiest for me. There is no way around it drying out, at least for me. I figure if I have to sit with my tweezers and pick off the little buggers, I may as well have a flat surface to hunt them on!! LOL!! I have to manually move them for the first week or so, after that, I put chow on a separate sheet of papertowel, and let them go there. I can remove the dirty one with out disturbing them. When they get really big, I just move them to a clean container cuz it's easier.

 

[carol5208]

I painstakingly remove them one by one and separate them from the poop! i dump the containers out on a paper towel every day and clean them and put fresh chow in. It is a PIA but I really don't mind doing it that much. It has become a daily ritual.

 

[pssh]

I hate chow... I haven't been able to raise a single batch of silkies over one inch with chow. I like leaves so much better. I've left the old pile of leaves and frass and just let it build up for more than a week with no deaths or problems. With chow, they would just die anyways.

 

[ColorCham427]

I hate chow... I haven't been able to raise a single batch of silkies over one inch with chow. I like leaves so much better. I've left the old pile of leaves and frass and just let it build up for more than a week with no deaths or problems. With chow, they would just die anyways.

lol i feel you. chow sucks. it's wet and smells.

using leaves, none of them die. their frass literally falls underneath all of the plant matter that isn't eaten.

right now i have a layer of stems mixed with dried leaves, and i can literally lift on corner and see tons of frass lol.

the worms on top are always nice and dry.

 

[pssh]

Exactly. Too bad mulberry trees don't have leaves all year long.

 

[getwitit]

should somebody try this?

just imagine the sideview.pdf clipped together, stretching the cloth taunt, with the magnets. Easy and simple DIY

i thought of this. use a flip flop method in which a screen of chosen mesh size, will act as a false bottom or false top. The concept is to have a screen and two cloths, with a gap in between each to create airspace. a cloth is stretched across the size of the screen.
Day 1:
food+silkies onto cloth/paper towel.
Step 1: connect the false roof(screen) and place food on top of the screen. Do this with 4 spare magnets. Wait for silkies to climb up to new food. Connect cloth to the top side. When all/most silkies are attatched to food/screen then flip and lift off the dirty bottom cloth. Clean screen, throw out cloth, and move any lost silkies to knew floor; which is now what was the top cloth.

I would use aluminum screen and construct this with 8 glueing points (although it will only take 4 dabs of glue), and this will become the enclosure for the larva. The design has a screen two cloths, and 12 magnets. The bottom side will always contain silkies or their resulting mess. The top will always either be clean or clean with a new piece of food.
Issues,
will the humidity be too high(than take the "roof" off)
will the design, given the outer material, have enough airflow(if not, use more than one "inner" magnet like a spacer, or use a more breathable towel/cloth).

 

[reptoman]

Exactly. Too bad mulberry trees don't have leaves all year long.

You can blanch the leaves for 30 seconds in water not quite hot enough to boil and bag them up and freeze them. Get as much air out of the bag before sealing it. They will last through the winter until fresh leaves are available. The thawed leaves only last a couple of days in the fridge as opposed to fresh that last nearly 2 weeks. I usually try to guage how many leaves I will need per feeding and try to put that much in each bag. Thawing is just stick the freezer bag in a bowl of warm water in the sink for 10 minutes, pull the leaves out onto a paper towel to pat dry and throw them in with the silks.

http://rms1.agsearch.agropedia.affrc.go.jp/contents/JASI/pdf/society/34-3405.pdf

The link looks like it is down for maintenance at the moment but that doc has information about preserving mulberry leaves and the optimal temp and duration for blanching to get the most nutrition from the leaves.

 

[pssh]

But that takes up freezer space. I like my freezer space, it's where I keep my veggie burgers!

 

[reptoman]

But you won't enjoy your veggie burgers if you have to smell nasty chow! Its a vicious cycle