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 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.

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.