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 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 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 Sixteen

Picture Source.
Pictures by Manyee Desandies

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.

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.