So my husband ordered 500 silkworm eggs and some worm chow for my anniversary present. I’m not really sure what this says about me or our relationship, but it was the perfect present. I’ve been joking about starting a silkworm ranch for a while. Hey, I live in a city rowhouse. I don’t think the neighbors (or the zoning department) are keen on my keeping sheep or alpaca, lol.
You can just barely see the first hatchlings. The eggs are just little dots. They lighten up a bit before hatching. The new worms look like tiny black maggots and are maybe 1/4 inch long. These first ones hatched a week ago, on Friday afternoon.
Only 5 had hatched by the time I should have gone to bed. I was nervous, having heard that they need to eat within 4 hours, so I got up in the middle of the night to check on them and sure enough, the mass hatching had started. I put the hatchlings on some food and brushed the rest of the eggs close to the food. By morning most were hatched
At this stage they are pretty gruesome little things.
These are about 4 days old. They’ve lightened up and plumped out. Most have white heads with black faces and tannish bodies. The skins on a few have started looking kind of stiff and maybe a bit translucent. Almost time to shed their skins, I think!
Day 6 and I think almost all of these have molted. I only saw one actually shed it’s skin and there don’t seem to be any old skins lying about. Did they eat them? All the wormies are plumper now and about a half inch long. The white heads are more pronounced and the bodies are a soft dove grey color. Much less gruesome, don’t you think.
So far I have had noticeable fatalities and I think at least 90% hatched. They are still small enough that I don’t want to try and count them. Maybe in another molting or two. Wish me luck! I want to spin some homegrown silk.
My sons did this in school. They had silkworms growing every year. The teacher put them in her fridge to go dormant and would bring them out each spring to make silk cocoons and teach the kids. I think it is gross but she kept them in a cardboard box and they never got out.
Hey I just loved the photos and experiencing this with you. I may even want to try this sometime. I too don’t have a place for fur bearing friends. Though after caring for our huge dog, It makes me wonder why I didn’t get a sheep dog..lol
Wow, this will be interesting! Worms–ick! ick! ick! and you have to kill the moths before they hatch or they chew through the silk and cut it into little pieces! Then unwind it–how do you find the end? and ply it, wind it up, dye it…I can’t wait to see how this comes out. Please keep us informed. Good luck.
Pat H.
How cool! I purchased some cocoons recently at the Carolina Fiber Fest. I hope you’re planning to do follow-up entries to show how you use them.
Okay…I know they’re worms, but this is truly fascinating, lol! Good luck to you…can’t wait to hear more!
[...] I last posted about my silkworms, they were about 6 days old and mostly in their second instar/stage. About three weeks and [...]