Wednesday 30 November 2011

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.

Tuesday 29 November 2011

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.

Monday 28 November 2011

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.






Sunday 27 November 2011

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.

Saturday 26 November 2011

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.

Thursday 24 November 2011

Day Fifteen, Week 3

We've had 11.5 mm of rain in the past twenty four hours.
The temperature is still below 13 oC and humidity is now 91%.
Heating is still on inside the house.
Silkworms continue to thrive. 
Larger silkworms are now 1.75cm in length.
You can see from the leaves above that the silkworms do a good job of finishing off the leaves.
I am noticing though, that they don't seem to like all the leaves equally.
Younger, less leathery leaves are their preference.
Tomorrow, three batches of fifteen silkworms will go to new homes.
Originally, I thought I had about 300 silkworms but now I'm doing rough calculations at over 400!
If you live in the Blue Mountains N.S.W. Australia and would like to purchase some feel free to contact me via this blog!
The going price is 15 silkworms for $5.
I understand that in the pet shops the silkworms are going for $1.50 each.
In the above photograph you can now see the various sizes of the silkworms.
The largest one on the right measure around 17mm.
The stripes on the silkworms skin is also becoming more and more obvious.
Because of the stripes these silkworms are called Zebra Silkworms.
Not all silkworms have stripes.
Some are a creamy white without any stripes.
This does not mean that they do not belong to the same species, rather it's a genetic variation, just like one brother may have brown eyes, and another brother blue.


Wednesday 23 November 2011

Day Fourteen

Today, I sold three batches of fifteen silkworms.
Persistence is paying off.
I have been listing them on a community facebook page so I have sold four batches through this listing.
Because the weather has remained cool (it's 13.6 oC outside tonight) the silkworms do become less active.  I have switched the heating on so they will be alright.

The two plastic shopping bags full of mulberry leaves that Mr Honey Pie picked and which I posted about yesterday are almost gone.
My Dear Daughter took some for her silkworms while mine have continued on their feeding frenzy despite the cooler weather.
DD has commented on how Grand Daughter is showing responsibility by for her pets by feeding the silkworms herself.  She is only four years old.
By being responsible for her fifteen pets, she can demonstrate that she might actually be ready to have her own larger furry pet...like a cat or a dog.
By the way, the silkworm larvae are no longer furry.
Their skin is smooth now and are a much lighter colour.
Some of the larvae are moulting again.  Second or third moult?  I'm not sure,  but probably third.
The fourth moult is the final one and after the fourth moult, the silkworm, once mature, begins to spin a cocoon using a silk filament.
The silk filament is actually the silkworm's saliva.
The next stage, that is when the cocoon is formed, is called the pupa stage.




Tuesday 22 November 2011

Day Thirteen

Thank you to Mr Honey Pie for being such a generous gatherer!
We now have a third source of mulberry leaves because Mr Honey Pie has discovered a mulberry tree growing in the yard where he works.
Just look at all those shiny green leaves.
This means we don't have to go to Tench Reserve alongside the Nepean River to gather a supply of leaves.  But it's reassuring to know that the supply is there if need be.

I'm finding the tanks a little easier to clean now.
Having two tanks is much more convenient than one.
With two tanks I can transfer all the silkworms and the leaves they're feeding on, to one tank while the other is being cleaned.
While I'm cleaning the tank, I place as many fresh leaves as I can into the other tank to entice as many silkworms onto the new leaves.
When the cleaned tank is ready I can then place the silkworm-laden leaves into the clean tank.
I am getting a bit of a better pattern and routine to the care of the worms.
Now that they are larger, they are also easier to handle.

One of the worms measured in at 1.5 cm today.

The temperature dropped to around 17 oC overnight.  
We've had cloud and rain so I'm hoping that it doesn't get much colder than this.
Otherwise I'll have to put the heating on again.



Monday 21 November 2011

Day Twelve

Sericulture is the cultivation of silkworms for silk.
Myths and legends surround the origins of silk.
The story I like most is how almost five thousand years ago, the Chinese Emperor asked his wife to find out what was eating his mulberry trees.
On the trees, the emperor's wife, Hsi-Ling-Shi, found white grubs eating away at the leaves.  She thought that she could destroy the insects by dropping the cocoons into boiling water.
What she found  was that the hot water dissolved enough of the 'glue' holding the cocoon together to reveal a continuous thread that she was eventually able to spin to make thread thick enough to weave cloth.
Hsi-Ling-Shi persuaded her husband, Emperor Huang-Ti to grow a grove of mulberry trees for her so that she could cultivate enough cocoons to weave more silk cloth.
This is how Hsi-Ling-Shi became the very first sericulturalist.
Silk production was to remain a guarded secret by the Chinese for three thousand years.
Today, silkworms cannot survive in the wild and are fully domesticated.
The silkworm moth cannot fly and would fall easily fall prey to predators.

Emperor Huang-Ti (Yellow Emperor)

Sunday 20 November 2011

Day Eleven

Caring for fifteen silkworms is MUCH easier than caring for three hundred plus!
Last year I bought fifteen silkworms at the markets, for $5.00.  Fifteen silkworms doesn't seem many.  Somehow I lost three of these silkworms, I'm not sure what happened to them.  Out of the remaining twelve silkworms all managed to reach the spinning stage, and eventually we had just as many moths.
Not all the moths lay eggs, only the females.  The eggs were refrigerated until spring and the result is what you see in this blog.   I realise now, that fifteen is probably a good number to keep as pets.  As the larvae grow and come closer to spinning cocoons, the more ravenous they become and need an endless supply of mulberry leaves.   Last year I ran out of leaves towards the end, but luckily I was able to find some at a relatives house which is quite a distance away.  Since then I have found a closer supply, besides the one little tree we have in the garden.  How many will be needed for hundreds of the little creatures?

Sometimes it's necessary to transfer some of the larvae from one leaf to another...they can become quite attached to an old leaf, even when it's all shrivelled up and lifeless.
I have found that the easiest way to transfer the silkworms is by scooping them up gently using a side way stroke with a soft water colour paintbrush.



The larger silkworms are now measuring in at 12mm in length.

I'm finding that the insects are much more active early morning.
This seems to be the best time to transfer them from old leaves to new ones when it becomes necessary to clean out the tanks.
I spread fresh leaves over the old and as the silkworms crawl onto the new leaves I transfer the leaves and silkworms into the second freshly cleaned tank.

Before I throw any of the old leaves out, I put them into what I'm calling a 'holding tank' with one fresh leaf (to attract any silkworms I may have missed) for twenty four hours.

Saturday 19 November 2011

Day Ten

Warmer weather means more active silkworms.
More active silkworms means hungrier silkworms.
Hungrier silkworms means more leaves needed to feed hungrier silkworms.
More eating of leaves means faster growing silkworms.
Faster growing silkworms means ramping up feeding from two feeds to three feeds a day.

Never feed silkworms wet leaves.  Wet leaves can make silkworms sick.  In the first instar, the tiny insects may even drown if the leaves are quite wet.
Pesticide free mulberry leaves are a MUST.  Feeding silkworms leaves treated with pesticide will kill them.
If a tree is not available close by, freshly picked leaves from a friend or neighbour's tree can be kept in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for up to a week.
This is what I have done because our mulberry tree is quite small.
When I feed them with leaves from the fridge, I have to wipe them dry because they become quite damp from condensation.
My silkworms seem to prefer younger leaves.
Some leaves they totally ignore.  Other leaves they strip bare.
I think they are picky!



Friday 18 November 2011

Day Nine

The weather over the last two days has been miserable.
On Tuesday, the temperature was around 37oC.  Yesterday it was 15 oC.  A big drop, and this can play havoc with the silkworm larvae.  The poor little things became sluggish and they slowed their eating right down.
In the end I turned the heating on.  Can you believe it?  Less than two weeks to summer and I've got the heating on?

Well, the good news is that the weather is back on track today and the little critters have returned to their active hungry selves.

And I sold my first batch of the silkworms today.  So far I've exchanged about 20, given away about 15 and sold another 20.

The larger of the silkworms is now measuring in at 12mm long and 2mm thick.  And their colour is lightening up to a nice creamy colour.


I've also got a request for some eggs (ova) when they eventuate which I might exchange for a mulberry plant.



I have become quite attached to the little things, I spend around an hour morning and night making sure they have enough fresh leaves and that old leaves are removed.
Of course if there were less, then this would take less time to do.




Thursday 17 November 2011

Day Eight, Week 2

Some tiny little larva are still present.  Can you see it to the left of the coin?

Most though are now around 7mm long and a bit more than 1mm thick.

More fertilizer means that I can now feed my indoor plants.


But this many silkworms also means a need to clean out their house.


Fresh leaves in place.

My Grand Daughter took around 20 silkworm larvae home with her yesterday.
I've also listed them on Facebook  for sale and sold one lot of 20 so far.
I have two tanks going now as one tank is not large enough.

I estimate well over 300 silkworms that need taking care of.

Wednesday 16 November 2011

Day Seven


The eldest of the silkworms are now seven days old.
By now some of these older brothers and sisters will have become too big for their skins; literally.
To cope with this situation the little critters moult, that is, they leave their old skin behind.
The time between each moult is called an instar.
Some of the silkworms have moulted twice since hatching last Thursday.
You can see some old skins above, they look like shrivelled up silkworms.
The first time you see this you might think that the silkworms are dead and take you by surprise, which is what happened to me.
Then I remembered that they shed their skins, just like a snake.


Silkworms moult four times, there are five instars during this stage.

The first stage is the wait for the eggs to hatch (incubation).  The egg stage is called Ova.

The second stage is the silkworm stage and is called Larva.

During the Larva stage, the silkworms eat and eat and eat.
Silkworms eat mulberry leaves so if you want to keep silkworms as a pet, then you need a mulberry tree.

The second thing you will need is a tank or box with good airflow to keep them in.
The third thing you will need is some time each day to feed them and to clean up their house.




Tuesday 15 November 2011

Day Six




Only one or two eggs hatched overnight.  Hatching is over now I think.
Perhaps one or two strays remain.
The larger silkworms now measure a healthy 6mm and are 1mm thick.

They are munch, munch, munching, away at the leaves.
It won't be long now and you'll be able to HEAR them eat!

To boost our supply of mulberry leaves, Mr Honey Pie visited Tench Reserve Penrith
where there are a number of mulberry trees growing and collected some leaves.
The leaves are stored in the refrigerator and used as they are needed.


I leave you with this final picture.
I took this yesterday afternoon, it's the silkworm droppings after just five days.
The droppings may be used to fertilize potted plants or added to the compost heap.






Monday 14 November 2011

Day Five

Connoisseurs of Mulberry Leaves.  Nom, nom, nom.
Silkworms only eat mulberry leaves.
They do not drink water as they consume all the moisture they need  from the mulberry leaves.
Last season I was told that I could feed my silkworms lettuce leaves.
I tried this once, when my supply of mulberry leaves was low and they said: NO NO NO!

Living quarters upgrade,
from the above to.....
this!

Leaves need to be changed two to three times a day. 
If the tank is covered this prevents the leaves from drying out so the leaves will need to be changed less often.
My  plan is to feed them from one side of the tank, discarding the older leaves as the silkworms transfer themselves to the fresh leaves.
So wish me luck!

Sunday 13 November 2011

Day Four

Phew, what a day!
Thought I'd not get around to this post today, even though photos were taken early morning.  Birthday celebrations with family followed by a trip to the emergency room at ANZAC Memorial Hospital Katoomba kept me busy.
Not to worry though, everything's good. Just need to make an appointment to see my dentist is all.
Today's emergents. 
Length: less than 3mm
Thickness: less than 1mm.

Most of the eggs are now pale in colour, that is, empty.

Three little silkworms, reaching for that elusive mulberry leaf.

Silkworms are insects.
The caterpillars have six 'real' legs and five pairs of false legs.

Saturday 12 November 2011

Day Three

One and two day old silkworms continue to  nibble away at the mulberry leaves creating a lacy pattern.
I swear that this morning's new hatchlings are much bigger than the first day's.


Above you can see the white eggs which have hatched and the dark spot is the hole from which the furry silkworms have emerged.
The darker eggs are unhatched fertile eggs.
Unlike the adult silkworm, newborn silkworms are hairy.
In Japan, newborn silkworms are called "Kego", meaning "hairy baby".

This morning I swapped twenty five of the newly emerged silkworms for three mushrooms at our local Crop & Swap.
I'm reckoning that around three hundred eggs have hatched so far.