Ground Hog Day

The cycle is complete.
To my surprise I discovered that between 20-30 silkworm eggs  have hatched!
I can only attribute this to the fact that we have suddenly had some warm weather and that the way I have left the eggs I have unintentionally created an incubator.
Luckily, I found the new hatched silkworms very early and have been able to rehouse them and provide them with fresh leaves off our mulberry tree.

The rest of the unhatched eggs have been refrigerated until I can get them to their new owner.

Above is a photograph of  our mulberry tree.

It's not very large.

The chicken wire netting is to prevent possums from climbing into the tree and eating all the berries and to stop them from stripping the tree bare of leaves.

Six hundred and ninety nine silk cocoons.

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 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 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.

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)

Source

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.

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.

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.