Silkworms as a staple diet?

Originally Posted by raiquee

about how many eggs does a silkie moth lay?

Depends on how silkie smoothe the males are!

you know i kept some silkies around and they came in a container that had the green chow in it but they eneded up getting kinda nasty and when i stole some mulberry from the neighborhood they seemed healthier and got bigger faster (it seemed, but i may be off)

does anyone know whether the leaves would be better than the chow?
i would think they would add somthin extra in the chow but is it just processed mulberry?

my elementary school had us raise them from eggs to moths and then we got eggs again. i remeber it being pretty easy and kinda fun. i will be buying some too.

Back in college I helped briefly in a few projects involving artificial media and Monarch caterpillars. Those medias have to have tons of antibiotics and mold inhibitors added. The challenge is finding how much you can add without killing the caterpillars. I know one of the most successful mixes we had incorporated formalin which is a carcinogen. So, I'm personally a bit leary about using a prepared food. At the higher concentrations of of additives the caterpillars tended to grow more slowly and were more likely to have problems pupating and would emerge as smaller adults. In the case of the medias used for painted ladies, a wild caterpillar would die if placed on them. Those caterpillars have been bred to be more resistant to all of the additives. Medias without additives typically mold within a day or two.

-Alice

I got my first moth yesterday!! Its rather small, so I think its a male.
I am a beginner myself, its my first time breeding these, I hope I'll get some eggs later on.

Ro, I heard that some eggs will hatch right away, without turning dark grey so can't be put in fridge. Any idea why that happens? Or does it happen at all?

Oh OK , Jeez i thought 20 days from egg to cocoon was surely the work of a pro .

Originally Posted by groovygeckos

Oh OK , Jeez i thought 20 days from egg to cocoon was surely the work of a pro .

Nah...the more you feed them the faster they grow! When they're near the cocoon stage, they became eating monsters and grow like mad...its really amazing, I find it fun to watch too. The only downside (to me) is their silk, they produce a lot of silk when they're young and it reminds me of spider silk...

My poor single male moth is lonely, he cocooned almost 2 days ahead of all others, now he's just 'sitting' in his moth box doing nothing...

Originally Posted by gothra

Nah...the more you feed them the faster they grow! When they're near the cocoon stage, they became eating monsters and grow like mad...its really amazing, I find it fun to watch too. The only downside (to me) is their silk, they produce a lot of silk when they're young and it reminds me of spider silk...

My poor single male moth is lonely, he cocooned almost 2 days ahead of all others, now he's just 'sitting' in his moth box doing nothing...

As long as there aren't any actual spiders I'm ok!

Gene, i would supposse that is true *laughs* (commenting on the smooth-ness of a silkie)

Well, so far my experience with this company has been a bad one. I ordered the Silkworms on Friday, Friday night I ghot an email saying that they were shipped out????

Tuesday came and no silkworms, so I emailed them and the owner (I think) said that she was away and that her employees were doing the shipping, and my order was shipped on Moday and should be delivered on Wednesday. She also said to let he know if there are any probelms.

Wednesday came, no Silks. I emailed her, she said that there was a postal error and all worms were returned to them, and I will get then on Thursday. Well, Thursday is here, no Silkworms again. I emailed her, can't wait to here her excuse this time.

Uh Oh , just ordered from them late last night , looks like they were shipped this morning so we`ll see what happens .