Day Fifty Two

New Year's Eve
My last post for the year.
I can report that no silkworms remain.  All have cocooned except for one, which didn't survive!  I can only blame it on the unseasonable cool weather. This December has gone down in the record books as the coolest December month in fifty years.
I can only hope that it does not affect the pupae.
Happy New Year!

Day Fifty One

Fed the one lone silkworm a few leaves off our depleted mulberry tree.
This last silkworm seems very reluctant to move on to the next stage of its cycle.
Someone in the Blue Mountains posted a picture of their liquid amber tree which thinks it's autumn already and its leaves have turned all autumnal colours.
Wonder what effect this has on the silkworms and their development.
This December is officially the coolest December on record in fifty years!



Here's another picture I've found of Alice and the Blue Caterpillar.  Hope you like it.

Day Fifty, Week 8

My aim for this blog is to post each day.
I have no camera at the moment.  I forgot it at my sister-in-law's house on Boxing Day, and I've been suffering from an extended-play influenza which is now in its third week.
The last thought on my mind today is silkworms.  Sorry to say.
Thank goodness only one, solitary, silkworm languishes on, waiting to spin its cocoon, eating very little and therefore not needing much attention from me.
All of the family have been visiting over the Christmas holiday period and only one adult child remains and plans to return to the city tomorrow.
Hopefully this means I can fade into the woodwork for a few days in an effort to fully recover.
Let's see if cocooned pupae can wait for my full recovery before metamorphosing and emerging as moths.
There is much work to be done before eggs begin to be laid.

Day Forty Nine

Can report that today, one silkworm caterpillar remains.
Only one caterpillar left to spin a cocoon.
Hallelujah!

Day Forty Eight

The silkworms continue to spin cocoons.
Only six or seven remain and are yet to spin.
Mulberry leaf feeding is no longer a first priority.
Mr Honey Pie has had four days off work over the Christmas holiday break and therefore not able to top up our supply daily from the usual source.
Thank goodness we are not desperate for leaves!  Today, the remaining silkworms have barely made an impact on two large Mulberry leaves fed to them this morning.  It will be a relief to not to have to worry about where their next supply of leaves is coming from.
Once all the cocoons have been spun I'd like to count the number of cocoons.
Of course I'll be quite short of the three thousand cocoons needed to make half a kilogram of silk!
The next challenge will be housing hundreds of moths and providing them with a place to lay their eggs.  Each female moth will deposit around 400 eggs.  They will only be viable if fertilized.

The silkworms at maturity, are around ten thousand times heavier than when they hatched.

Day Forty Seven

Image of silkworm cocoons.

From Inheritance In Silkworms by Vernon L Kellogg, 1908.

Day Forty Six

A quiet day on the home front.
Only a few silkworms left to cocoon.
A bit of relief at Christmas and so grateful!
Hope your Christmas day was all you wanted it to be.

Day Forty Five

Today we discovered a silkworm cocoon on the skirting board, behind the dinning room dresser.

Hope we don't find any more surprises!

Day Forty Four

Panic stations late yesterday when I discovered that ants have been gathering in one of the tanks.
No, no, no!
It seems that one of the silkworms had escaped and cocooned beneath a tank sitting  directly on the floor and when I moved the tank it sort of squashed the caterpillar.
Death equals ANTS!
So what to do? What to do?
Cleaned up as best I could, mopped the floor around the general area and I think we're now back to safe stations again.
What also attracts the ants is the messy fluid that is excreted just before the silkworms begin to spin their cocoons.
It can dampen cardboard if that's what the silkworms are on. Some of mine are now in shoe boxes and I have been leaving them directly on the floor...a big no- no!  No longer!

Yesterday afternoon I also received a telephone call from a panic stricken grand mother who wanted to purchase silkworms for her two year old grand daughter.
The child's mother's been reading her the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and the two year old has asked Santa for a caterpillar for Christmas.
I have been advertising the silkworms for sale on Gumtree and although I've had about eighty hits, this was my first call.  The serendipity is that the family lives only a few kilometres away and this afternoon Grandma Nanette  went home with ten of my smallest caterpillars to give to her grand daughter for Christmas.  How sweet!

Day Forty Three, Week 7

Here is Alice, from Alice In Wonderland speaking with the blue caterpillar.

In Lewis Carroll's story, the caterpillar does not have a name.

The caterpillar's most memorable quote would have to be:  "Who are you?"

To which Alice replies:  "I—I hardly know, sir, just at present—at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have changed several times since then."

Is Lewis Carroll alluding to the changes that a caterpillar must go through in its own life?

Will Alice need to go through similar transformations? 

In the original story by Carroll, the caterpillar makes an appearance in chapters four and five then disappears from the scene.

How true to form is this? 

Thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the above image.

Day Forty Two

Today has been a day of capturing escapees.

And watching other silkworms spin gossamer webs to build their cocoon.

Day Forty One

My biggest fear at the moment is that one of the silkworms is going to get stepped on!
I came home this afternoon to find five or six of the little critters creeping around on the floor, probably having dropped off the edge of their tank in a bid to find a spot to anchor their cocoon!

Spinning is proceeding happily.

The silkworms make just as much noise spinning as they do eating!

Did you know that the length of silk thread produced to make one cocoon exceeds six hundred metres?

Day Forty

The colours of the cocoons are many and varied.

The one above is almost white.

More and more of the silkworms are spinning their cocoons.

It won't be long now before they've all done so.

Some of the smaller silkworms have been separated from the adult silkworms because I don't think that they're capable of competing for the food and were at risk of suffocating.

All continue to thrive.

It's almost a full time job keeping up the feeding, the transferring and the cleaning.

Once more I've got Mr Honey Pie to thank for keeping up the supply of mulberry leaves!

Day Thirty Nine

Below are some links to children's books about caterpillars and the metamorphosis that they must go through to complete the cycle from egg to moth or butterfly.
I will continue to add to the list as I discover more titles.

Children's Books
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heilligman

Casper the Ugliest Caterpillar by Tammy Pierce

Ten Little Caterpillars Bill Martin Jr.

Craft Resources for Children

7 Silkworm Cocoons

Day Thirty Eight

The adult silkworm larvae now have a new type of condominium.

About twenty cocoons are being spun at the moment.

A close up of the latest cocoon.  Inside, the silkworm is still spinning away.

The adult silkworm, preparing to spend the next few days spinning.

This is the typical arch of the silkworm as it makes ready to build its cocoon.

We ran out of leaves today and Mr Honey Pie had to make a special trip down to Nepean River's Tench Reserve to collect more.  He brought back five shopping bags full.  One and a half have already been devoured by the ravenous silkworms.

I think the most important job to growing silkworms is keeping the tanks clean.

This has been a constant task over the past two days.

The amount of frass is astronomical!  

Silkworms can survive without food for up to one week, but if their housing is allowed to go mouldy, then that could be the end of them.

Day Thirty Seven

Slick, sleek,slender -
Incognito.
Likened to an unheralded
Knight- in-
Waiting.
Opulence found in the attire in which you
Revel - a silken
Mantle to nature's wonder.

d.m.vaarwerk. 16.12.2011

Day Thirty Six, Week 6

One sure sign, in my opinion, that a silkworm is about to commence spinning its cocoon, is when it starts to climb the walls - literally.

Like the one above did late last night.

I removed the larva from the its tank and placed it in a shoe box with some cut down egg cartons.

It eventually found itself a nice little niche. 

I've turned the carton over so the silkworm could be photographed.

I want to keep the cocoons separated from the larvae as much as practical.

It wasn't long before the adult silkworm had settled in and started cementing itself into a space under the egg carton.

Here is the resulting cocoon not twenty four hours from when the top photograph was taken.

It's still the only cocoon so far.

On the right you can see a white-ish stain on the cardboard.  This is a fluid emitted by the larvae just before it begins to spin.  

Another sign that the silkworm is about to start spinning its silk cocoon is that it stops eating.

Because of the awkward position of the cocoon I couldn't take a close up of the beginning of the spin.

With the light behind the cocoon, the adult silkworm could still be seen spinning from side to side even when this last photograph was taken about thirty minutes ago.

Day Thirty Five

Today's post is brought to you by the letter S and the number 6.5!

I'm still feeling a bit under the weather today.
My tummy is still sensitive and I'm only eating lightly.

On the other hand, the silkies are spurring on.

The fellows below are measuring in at approximately 6.5cm in length and 1cm in thickness.  Others are are measuring in at almost 8cm.

onthesilkwormroad.blogspot.com

 

Isn't the creamy wonderful?

The cream silkworms are definitely a minority.  Perhaps this is what makes them seem more attractive to me.

I found an interesting article about changing the colour of silkworms which in turn changes the colour of the silk:

Australian Geographic.

Oh the possibilities.

I've listed the silkworms for sale on Gumtree.  The ad will be visible tomorrow.

Unless I take up sericulture  as a full time activity I panic to think what I'm going to do with around six hundred cocoons and the resulting moths and eggs! 

Feel free to contact me through this blog if you would like to purchase some.

The going rate is $5.00 for 15 silkworms.  Pick up only and I'm in the Blue Mountains.

Thanks for visiting!

Day Thirty Four

I've been stricken by a stomach bug.
Mr Honey Pie has been the main carer of the silkworms today.
Thanks so much Honey...where would we be without you!
Thanks too for the bags and bags of leaves you have picked for the silkies!
Due to my illness - this is it for today.
Hopefully everything will be back on track tomorrow.

Day Thirty Three

Day Thirty Two

The silkworms are now taking up a great portion of my time.
It seems weird to think that such a benign insect can make an impact on one's life.
Last year, when I had fifteen of them to care for, they made a much smaller impression on my days.
My original intention for making the purchase of fifteen silkworms was to give them to my Grand Daughter because she is unable to have a pet.  She lives in a tenanted house and no pets are allowed.
Are silkworms classed as pets?  Would a goldfish be classed as a pet...?   She has had more than one goldfish but each one perished so that idea was passed up.

This year she's been given another fifteen or so of her own but I have hundreds more to contend with.
Believe it or not...mine are thriving much better than her fifteen.

Twelve caterpillars left home today...up the mountain they went.  But once more they've hardly made a dent in the numbers!

I ran out of mulberry leaves tonight and had to resort to picking leaves off our tiny little tree...which I've been saving in case of emergencies.
Later on Mr Honey Pie brought home two plastic shopping bags stuffed with leaves.
What can I say?  He saved the day!

Day Thirty One

Today I took the opportunity of parting with some more of the silkworms at our local Crop and Swap.  Four more batches in fact.  That is between eighty and one hundred of them.

But looking at what's left, no one would even know.

And yes, I've added a fourth level to the condominium.

Day Thirty

The largest of the silkworms is weighing in at around two grams, its length six centimetres.
I'm feeling quite concerned that the larvae are getting so large that they may begin to squash each other.
Because of this concern I'm contemplating adding another level to the condominium to give them more room to spread out.

About fifty more silkworms left home late yesterday, to replace the ones lost by one of my customers.
She revealed to me that she had a Glade Air Freshener in the same room as the silkworms and that this is what may have caused their demise.
I have received a message from her today telling me that this new batch is thriving.  They are residing in her daughter's bedroom as opposed to the kitchen.

Day Twenty Nine, Week 5

Silkworm Condominium

Day Twenty Eight

By the size of the holes in this leaf it 

 seems that silkworm caterpillars are not the only caterpillars that like mulberry leaves.

I found the above little fellow on my supply of leaves that have been stored in the refrigerator.

It has been chilled for something like three days, and survived.

I put the caterpillar and the leaf outside.

I'm hoping that the little creature can fend for itself.

My other find today was a silkworm in a smaller container that I  had been storing the larvae in ready to be picked up.

I thought  it was empty.

I'd say that the silkworm had been in the container for something like a week.  

It too survived!  

If there was food for in the container who can say?  There was none today.

It has now joined it's brothers and sisters in one of the three tanks I've got going to house them all.

Day Twenty Seven

This silkworm is one of the  biggest in the tank.

Well, Mr Honey Pie & I  really mis-judged on how big a container we were going to need to keep the silkworms in.

We purchased the smaller container in the foreground for that purpose.

Luckily I'd cleaned out the larger three in time to keep them in.

My how they've grown!

Day Twenty Six

Today a woman from further up the mountains messaged me to say that all the silkworms she had purchased from me have died!

Shock!

I can't imagine why they have perished.  The cooler temperatures may have been a cause and since she's at a higher altitude it's of course even cooler where she is.

I have offered her a refund or to replace her silkworms.  She wants to have them replaced but I can't help feeling that it's a waste of time and silkworm lives since the real cause isn't know.

Meanwhile my many hundreds of silkworms continue to thrive.  They are consuming mulberry leaves at a rate of knots and I'm not sure how I'm going to manage to keep up the supply.

Mr Honey Pie is bringing two bags home each day and this is barely enough to last twenty four hours.

I may have to find a second supply as my mangy little tree won't do much to feed them.

Moulting continues too.  

Day Twenty Five

Now that's better.

And BIGGER!

Day Twenty Four

Thanks to The Graphics Fairy for the above vintage image of a silkworm caterpillar, moth and eggs.

I'm beginning to feel quite attached to the caterpillars.

They are large enough now to be much more easily handled.

The size variance between them all is still huge.

The larger ones are buzzing with life.

I can feel this when I touch them.

They do not flinch at all when I make contact with them gently using my finger tips.

It is essential that the larvae are only handled with clean hands.

Bacteria may be transferred to the larvae.

To keep the caterpillars healthy it is important to keep the humidity (moisture) in their tank  low.

High humidity encourages mould to grow and will make the silkworms sick.

If the worms must be handled it should be done with great care so as to avoid bruising them.

Day Twenty Three

If you listen carefully to this video, you can hear the silkworms eating.

Watch how the silkworm eats the leaf always in the one direction.

About forty silkworms went to a new home today.

Still hundreds in the tanks!

Temperature below 16 oC outdoors.

Heating on indoors, I've got my thermals on and still cold!

Day Twenty Two, Week 4

Today is the first day of summer in the southern hemisphere.  It feel more like autumn than summer though.  At the moment the outdoor temperature is 13.5 oC. Hardly summer temperature.

Indoors though it's 20.8 oC.

Despite the cooler weather the moulting continues. 

The largest of the silkworms is now 3cm long. 

Mr Honey Pie has been doing some house painting indoors.   We have been trying to redecorate since July.  Painting only gets done when Mr Honey Pie gets consecutive days off from his roster, or when he has consecutive late starting shifts.  As well as that, it's necessary that he has no previous appointments on those days.  Finally, he was able to paint the main bathroom and the smallest room in the house.

We had to take the silkworm containers and their contents into the garage while the painting was going on.

Silkworm larvae are sensitive to various fumes.

Things like essential oils can kill the larvae.

After all, they are an insect.  Lavender essential oil is an insect repellent so lavender oil and silkworms just don't mix.

So to be on the safe side, out went the silkworms into a fume free zone.

Day Twenty One

Over the past twenty four hours many of the silkworms have been busy moulting.

The silkworms are now big enough to see the moults clearly.

The little flat fishy looking things are the silkworms old skins, which they have grown out of.

When the silkworms are moulting, they tend not to be as active as at other times.

But once out of their old skins they eat and eat and eat.

In fact at the larva stage the main activity of the silkworm is eating.

Day Twenty

Feeding time in the tank.

9.16 a.m. 

9.17:30 a.m. 

9.21 a.m. 

9.26 a.m. 

9.38 a.m.

Day Nineteen

The silkworms are eating mulberry leaves at record speed.

They can't wait to turn into moths.

I can only imagine that my Grand Daughter has been inspired by our rearing of silkworms to have drawn and cut out the above images without any prompting from the grown-ups in her life.

The silkworms continue to grow, I continue to feed and keep clean their house.

Part of the cleaning process involves removing the silkworms' droppings.

The proper term for silkworm droppings is 'frass'.

Adding frass to your garden beds is said to aid flowering plants to bloom.

It is important to keep the silkworms' house clean to prevent mould growing and causing  the silkworms to become sick.

The silkworms' house should be cleaned out at least every two days.

Not only should the frass be removed, but any dried up leaves as well.

Day Eighteen

As far as the silkworms are concerned, things are not that different today from how they were yesterday.

A lot of moults have been left behind on the old leaves.  The silkworms are growing.

The rhythm of feeding, transferring from one tank to the other, cleaning thanks and feeding again, is running smoothly.

Weekend visitors have been amazed by the sight of hundreds of silkworms in a feeding frenzy.

My Grand Daughter has enjoyed placing fresh leaves into the tanks and watching the silkworms devouring the them.

The rate at which the mulberry leaves are being consumed has increased noticeably.

Our son M reluctantly took some silkworms home with him in the hope that friends might be interested in having some of their own.

Despite the numbers that have been sold or given away, the quantity does not seem to have been diminished at all.

My Grand Daughter slept over last night.

This morning to continue the theme of sericulture we did some Mulberry leaf paintings.  

It all seems to be about mulberry leaves at the moment.

This picture was painted with mulberry leaves loaded with water colours. 

Same picture edited in PhotoImpressions and then Picasa.

Day Seventeen

The rain has stopped and the sun is shining.

The silkworms are much more active now and eating voraciously.

This little critter seems to have no stirpes.

He is one of the bigger silkworms

I've fed the silkworms three times today.

They are getting through the leaves very quickly now.

One more batch went to a pre-school this afternoon.

There has been a lot of interest on the facebook page I'm trying to sell them from but not all the people expressing interest actually follow through on their requests.

If I don't sell many of the silkworm larvae I will try and sell the cocoons, and then if I need to the eggs as well.