Success at Breeding Silkworms?

[GroovyGeckos.com]

Looking to see if anyone here, has had any luck with these. I think I have the "new tiger strain", of silkworm from Mulberry Farms, as they were only selling small amounts of worms and eggs, when they were, I assume, building their colonies. I have had a very good hatch rate with the eggs, as opposed to the last time I tried hatching them, and they are supposed to be a hardier strain. The "cats" are also quite large, they seem to have grown larger than the last ones I tried to let cocoon. I thought they would all have "spun" a week ago, but they`ve only continued to grow! Now they are finally starting to cocoon themselves.

I had no problem getting them to make cocoons the first time, but they never emerged as moths. I think I know what happened but am not sure, so here is my question:

Is there a required amount of humidity for the moths to emerge? It was very dry in our house this winter, and I think maybe that was the problem. Also how long "should" they take to emerge? Anyone?

Thank You!

 

[Sandra]

I've never been too succesful with silkworms. The first time trying to breed them I got one female moth out of a hundred coccons. They are supposed to emerge around two weeks after.

I lost most them due to fungus. I didn't give them any extra humidity, cleaned my hands every time before touching them or they food and cleaned the droppings everyday. They had plenty of ventilation holes in their containers too. And still this happened. I would say no extra humidity. The leaves/chow should containg enough water.

 

[david13]

i've never tried

 

[mynewturtle]

When I attempted breeding them I did get quite a few babys. I got to the point where it was just cheaper buying the worms.

Ventlation: This is very important, if silk worms lack air you will notice a big die off.

Gloves: I always found that if I used gloves it was better, for some reason if I used my bare hands the SMALL silkies would die.

Food: This guys need a lot of food, if they lack food they will die, they go through a lot of food(It's expensive to buy in Canada) Make sure you give them a lot.

Clean: Keep there encloser very clean, you need to clean it very often. I always hated cleaning it but if you leave it bad smell, some die off ect.

If your house was very dry that possibly was your problem. Try again now thats it's not winter and is a bit more humid and see if you can get them to emerge. If you can't and you still feel it's humidy try with a small amount and add humidty, remove just mess around with it in small numbers untill you get some moths.

At the end I just figure these take to much to breed, and keep so I decided to just buy them as treats for breeders and the dragons.

Good luck, keep trying it's really cool if it wasn't like 15$ a pound of food in canada I would still breed them.

 

[GroovyGeckos.com]

Thanks again. I figure even if I keep a small amount of them going, it has to still cost less than buying worms or eggs, only having to buy the chow. Hopefully I will have a mulberry tree(or can plant one), in the future too. They are a great food/calcium source, the geckos love them. The worms are such odd creatures, but they are kind of "fun to watch"(watch them do mostly nothing but eat lol), at times.:main_laugh: