Yay baby silkworms

[ellbodavis]

So this is my first anything with silkworms. I ordered 500 eggs from coastal and put them in a 10 gallon with a 60 watt red heat lamp and a moist paper towel. Temp at 82 degrees. They started hatching this morning on the 9th day. I have been checking them like crazy and was feeling like nothing was going to happen.

I will be taking lots of pics from now to cocoon as we are using them for my daughters science project as well as feeding them to our reptile family.

 

[Kate]

Good luck. Piglett79 has great blog on here.

 

[Psychobunny]

I have some eggs too from silkies I got online and let them cocoon and mate.

Not many eggs, and I do not have great luck with these because the hatchlings are so hard to keep alive till they reach 1/2''.

I really need to cut down on my feeder spending!!
It's not the bugs that cost so much, it's the added shipping!! Like, 30 something $$ for 50 silkies!!

They last about 10 days, and I get very pissed if one of my guyz turns his nose up at them!

I say to them; "do you know what these buggers cost???"

I don't think they care

 

[KarmenCham]

i've yet to see silkworms anywhere in uk to buy for my Chameleon purely as a change to locusts

 

[Garf]

i've yet to see silkworms anywhere in uk to buy for my Chameleon purely as a change to locusts

There's a few on the bay flogging them. That's where mine are from

 

[ellbodavis]

I think there are like 100 hatched so far. I've read they will die if the don't eat in 24 hours. There are some not trying to look for the globs of chow. My husband came home to find me with a magnifying glass and a toothpick shuttling them to the globs.

I think I paid $60 for the eggs and chow (4 - 1/2 lb bags). Im hoping at least half live to be fed and about 20 to cocoon.

 

[ellbodavis]

I say to them; "do you know what these buggers cost???"

I don't think they care

I could see myself doing thus. At leads I have a bearded dragon and leopard gecko that will eat anything that moves.

 

[Psychobunny]

I could see myself doing thus. At leads I have a bearded dragon and leopard gecko that will eat anything that moves.

LOL! Smeagol is like that, he will eat anything if I give it a little 'wiggle', then
spit it out if he thinks it's yucky

 

[Psychobunny]

I think there are like 100 hatched so far. I've read they will die if the don't eat in 24 hours. There are some not trying to look for the globs of chow. My husband came home to find me with a magnifying glass and a toothpick shuttling them to the globs.

I think I paid $60 for the eggs and chow (4 - 1/2 lb bags). Im hoping at least half live to be fed and about 20 to cocoon.

In nature, the silk moth lays her eggs directly on the mulberry leaf, so the hatchling start eating right away, they dont have to go find their food, they are already sitting on it!

You have to do something like that when you hatch them, and my moths lay on a paper towel. So I just cut the patch of eggs out, and place it on some mulberry leaves (when I can find them), or the prepared stuff.
But I wait until I see some starting to hatch before putting them on the food. Otherwise, the food dries up pretty quick.

Also, it's a pain keeping them clean and not in contact with poop!!

 

[ellbodavis]

In nature, the silk moth lays her eggs directly on the mulberry leaf, so the hatchling start eating right away, they dont have to go find their food, they are already sitting on it!

You have to do something like that when you hatch them, and my moths lay on a paper towel. So I just cut the patch of eggs out, and place it on some mulberry leaves (when I can find them), or the prepared stuff.
But I wait until I see some starting to hatch before putting them on the food. Otherwise, the food dries up pretty quick.

Also, it's a pain keeping them clean and not in contact with poop!!

Ok. It looks like I will have to put food right on top of them then. I was talking to them, saying; "it's right there!" Like they could hear me. I bought some cross stitch canvas to hopefully allow the poo to fall to the bottom.

 

[Psychobunny]

Yeah, the poop is pretty dry, so it should go through.

I use screen bottom plastic containers of different size mesh.
Small mesh for the babies, so the poop can fall through, but not the babies
And larger size mesh for when they get bigger (with bigger poops!!).

 

[Cap10Squirty]

I have a question for anyone here..I have asked this on FrogForum but have not received a good explanantion yet..

If given the right incubation temperatures, wouldn't the eggs hatch within a 1-2 week time frame regardless of the time of the year? In other words is it possible to have silkworm generations hatch year around?

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I was concerned after reading about them that I would have to wait months for the eggs that I purchased to hatch.

 

[ellbodavis]

I think so. At least this is what I am trying. I think you have to refrigerate new eggs when the turn from yellow to gray for 2-3 weeks. When you remove them from the refrigerator it simulates spring and they get the message to hatch. At least this is what I have read in researching.

I took some up close pics of the hatchlings.

 

[pssh]

There are some strains that will hatch immediately all year, but none in the US that I can find. Otherwise, some may or may not hatch immediately and the rest need to be put in the fridge to stimulate winter. Maybe raising the moths AND worms (that hatch immediately, not the fridged ones) with a certain light period (18:6) would get them to start hatching all year after a while?

 

[Cap10Squirty]

Well, 2-3 weeks in the fridge is nothing compared to half a year haha. I'm about to receive 500 eggs of the "zebra" variety. I think I'll try hatching all of them and then conduct some research on this myself.

 

[pigglett79]

It is best to use a small cheese grater and grate the food over them in small amounts. I have so far not had much luck trying to hatch them without a diapause cycle in the frig. I keep the eggs in an incubator at 85 degrees and I also have a light on a 14 hour day cycle in there as it is also the closet where I raise my hornworms.

 

[Cap10Squirty]

How long of a diapause do you allow for in the fridge? Or what minimum amount of time should they spend in the fridge and do you place them in the frodge immediately after being laid by the moth?

Thanks for the input!

 

[pigglett79]

I put them in at least 3 weeks or longer. Most of my eggs are I the frig for at least a month to 3 months. You need to wait until the yellow eggs turn brown, then Grey and then you can put them in the frig.

 

[ellbodavis]

Well, 2-3 weeks in the fridge is nothing compared to half a year haha. I'm about to receive 500 eggs of the "zebra" variety. I think I'll try hatching all of them and then conduct some research on this myself.

I got zebra too. It was $5 more, but they are supposed to be less delicate. If you don't plan to hatch all of them or hatch them right away, ask that they ship them with a cold pack. If not all will be on their journey to hatchdom. This is what I was told...

 

[Cap10Squirty]

I got zebra too. It was $5 more, but they are supposed to be less delicate. If you don't plan to hatch all of them or hatch them right away, ask that they ship them with a cold pack. If not all will be on their journey to hatchdom. This is what I was told...

How are the silkworms doing? I think mine are about to hatch, they are starting to turn a light gray color and I can see the dark caterpillar underneath all curled around the edge of the egg.

About placing the eggs in the fridge, you have to wait until they turn yellow to brown then gray and not just once they turn dark? I'm not trying to do that with this batch, but the next generation I'd like to space out some of the eggs. 500 all at once is a lot!