Just ordered some silk worms. Does anyone use them?

[Latlaw]

Or have success with picky eater?

 

[acpart]

I have gotten them occasionally in the summer when the local mulberry tree is in leaf. Some of mine like them, some don't. It will work with the picky eater if the eater "picks" them.

Aliza

 

[thestack510]

I've considered trying them, but I was told that many Leos don't like them. Each Leo is an individual though, so I may still give it a shot. If you try to use them and have success be sure to let us know.

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

We are using them right now and out of 30 something geckos I can only think of one girl(marble) that really doesn't like them. I think they are great feeders,one of our girls just reached the largest she's ever been at 96 grams since starting to feed silkies!

 

[gothra]

I use them. Most of my leos will eat them if they haven't eat them for a while, but they lose interest after sometime. Out of my 10 geckos, I have 2 that absolutely LOVE them. I also have 2-3 that prefer not to eat them. Really depends on the individual gecko.

(My levis likes silkworms too!)

 

[OhioGecko]

We have feed silkworms a handful of times, 95% of the geckos love them! That being said we have had a hard time keeping the silkworm colonies from dieing off.

 

[gothra]

We have feed silkworms a handful of times, 95% of the geckos love them! That being said we have had a hard time keeping the silkworm colonies from dieing off.

Are you using silkworm chow or mulberry leaves? If you're using chow, you need to keep them very well ventilated. I noticed when their frass compile, they can start to mold very quickly; you need to flip open the frass layer to check for mold.

 

[Gregg M]

I have bred then and used them before... Not really worth the money to buy them or the hassle to breed them in my opinion...

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

Gregg how did you successfully breed them? I have gotten them to cocoon but the moths that come out will have bent wings and generally do not look super healthy. Despite that they would still mate and produce the eggs that turn black, but then those eggs never hatched. How did you keep your worms/cocoons/moths if I may ask? And yes they are a pain to take care of. lol

 

[Gregg M]

It is quite a bit of work to breed them... I had the moths set up in big rubbermaid bins with stacks of paper towel tubes...

I would collect the fertile eggs and put them in a petri dish... Once the eggs turned black I would put them in a coner of the basement where the temps ranged from 55 to 60 degrees for 3 to 4 weeks... Then I would slowly warm them up to 85 degrees in a rack draw while in the petri dish... The petri dish lid is left off and I would put damp paper towels on the hot side of the rack draw to raise the himidity level in the bin...

10 to 15 days later the eggs would start to hatch out and then it was time to prep their food... I would raise them in rack draws until they cocoon and then the cocoons were moved to a large bin... Then the cycle would start over again.... The racks worked good because I was able to separate the larva by size and stage...

It just got to be too much work and nothing is better than roaches... LOL...

I would say the reason your eggs never hatched was because you most likely did not give them a cooling period... That is a very important bit of information that most silk worm breeders leave out...

 

[ILoveGeckos14]

Cool, yes the cooling period was made to seem optional (like if you had too many eggs) and not necessary in all the articles I read. That's a lot of work, I think I have been deterred from breeding silkies with this new info. haha Thank you!

 

[gothra]

I breed my own silkworms also; I don't have a cool basement, so I put all the eggs in a zip lock bag and store them in my fridge. From my experience, the eggs will only hatch after 2 months in the fridge and are good for about 1 year.