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 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.