Posted by:
wideglide
at Tue Dec 2 22:52:42 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by wideglide ]
>>The 2 or 3 gumball sized is per day?
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>>What are people's experiences with using a cheese grater? I find it almost impossible and I tend to overfeed them when they are young. I am concerned that when I use the strip method (per Mulberry) that I might be harming younger worms.
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>>Has anyone here had success with Catapillers and new eggs?
are about 1/4" long. I find if you put the cheese grater in the fridge the grating doesn't come off in big lumps. You won't harm them by using the cheese grater, just don't pile it on too thick. I haven't used the strip method, per say. If I'm past the cheese grater method I just use small chunks. By that time the worms have the ability to move to the food.
I've had some success with eggs. Going by the average of 200-500 eggs per moth I've currently got 3000-7500 eggs in the fridge and 600-1500 silkworms that have hatched.
I ran into two problems so far and haven't been able to explain them yet. One is that I had a lot of cocoons that the moths weren't able to break out of. I examined them and the worms did turn into moths but for some reason they never got out.
To explain the second problem I had let me explain how the eggs are supposed to mature. After the moth lays the eggs they are supposed to turn a dark color within about 3 days. You can either put them in the fridge and store them or let them incubate. When they are getting to the point of hatching they will turn to gray then eventually become somewhat clear in the center. Well, I had the eggs sitting in containers in a 10 gal. aquarium (70-73 degrees) for at least a week and they didn't get dark. I had a pretty good idea they were fertile because all the moths mated successfully. I decided to put the eggs in the incubator (84 degrees) and see what happened. They skipped they completely skipped dark phase and went straight to gray then began to hatch! Now I'm up to my ears in freakin' silkworms!
Like I said I'm not sure what happened but will have plenty of breeders to test a few things out. Regardless, I've still got a nice stockpile in the fridge but don't know yet if they will even hatch. Eventually I'll see how well I did with these but it will probably be a couple of months.
I can't remember who it was but someone on here said they have had success for awhile now with raising them. Maybe they'll have some more info.
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Rob
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I think using the cheese grater is only necessary until they (long) - wideglide, Tue Dec 2 22:52:42 2003