Yay baby silkworms

[ellbodavis]

Hello! I have been on vacation 9 hours away and not as dedicated to the forum this week. I actually took them with me for fear my pet sitter would not take good care of my baby worms.

I had about 250-300 hatch. Some are reaching 1/2 inches, most are still very small. Non have yet shed for the first time. They are not growing as fast as I would have expected. I may need to put them back on heat when I get home to speed them up.

 

[ridgebax1]

I got 200 eggs and most hatched and from that I have about 10 adults. The container I had for the hatchlings had this u shaped border I had not noticed and there was some condensation in the container that filled the border and a lot of the worms drowned. Anyway I am planning on letting them cocoon. I have 2 cocoons from another batch that I had gotten as babies. They are giant assed worms now and I think they should all be in cocoons but apparently they think they know better as they are still eating! I know Pigglett79 is the silk and hornworm guru and I hope to be half as successful!
I did read somewhere else that when feeding the tiny baby worms, rather than plopping the grated food on top of them, they used a plastic bag with a hole in the corner and squeezed the food out like cake icing placing near but not on the worms and they were able to travel to it and eat it. I might try this next time.

 

[CarlC]

For just hatched worms I scrape a spoon across the top of the food. It give me nice small and thin shavings.

Carl

 

[Cap10Squirty]

19 of mine have hatched. They're still tiny. They seem to be mostly hatching in the evening so far. I prepared the chow in a cake decorating bag and it sure makes handling the food easy....my skin doesn't come in contact with the food at all, nor does anything else but the plastic mesh.

When I was raising hornworms this summer, I took them a long with me and my wife on our trip to Florida!! Haha all the way from Arkansas haha. I have my silkworms in the same room as the eggs which is at 80 F. They seem to be enjoying life so far...eating and pooping.

 

[ellbodavis]

I am using a pampered chef cheese grater the kind with the handle you rotate like at Olive Garden. I really hope they start to grow. I have a handful at the 3/4 inch mark but none have moved into 2nd instar status. Wanting about 10 to cocoon to make more eggs.

 

[Psychobunny]

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.

Interesting! the 3 times I have raised them I never put the eggs in the fridge
It took them a few weeks, but they all hatched.
Does this diapause cycle depend on species?

 

[Psychobunny]

I am using a pampered chef cheese grater the kind with the handle you rotate like at Olive Garden. I really hope they start to grow. I have a handful at the 3/4 inch mark but none have moved into 2nd instar status. Wanting about 10 to cocoon to make more eggs.

What do you use the cheese grater for?

Do you grate the prepared food stuff?

It looks too wet and soft for grating to me! I always just slice the stuff in thin
strips.

 

[CarlC]

If your buying eggs from a commercial source they have already been diapaused.

I make my food on the drier side so using a grater works perfect when the worms are small. Another way is like I said earlier, just scrape a spoon across the top of the food.

At 3/4" you still have a bit to go until they start cocooning.

Carl

 

[ellbodavis]

I was cleaning out the worm bin and thought I would share my handful of worms...



I use a spoon and put a chunk into my cheese grater and it is working ok.

 

[ellbodavis]

Cheese grater I am using...

 

[pigglett79]

Yes if you buy commercial eggs chances are they already had a diapause.

I have a ton of cocoons now as my boys decided they don't want them when I have tons. Ha. So eggs will be laid and moths eaten.....I hope anyway.

They always want the worm I am low on.....figures.