Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Firstly, I’d like to say that I am in no way a Silkworm expert. All the information I give is based on my own experience of using silkworms. So far successfully.

The temperature in my reptile room dropped last night to 19°C (approx 69°F). I’ve also just checked the daytime temp and I notice it is 22°C. However, during the time I’ve been keeping silkworms (approximately 3 months) the weather has been very warm and the temperature fairly high (with a few very cold exceptions recently). I hadn’t planned to raise the overnight temps in my reptile room but after seeing how low it got last night when it wasn’t even cold I think I must – if only for my Chameleon. Therefore, I wouldn’t really like to advise you on how low you can actually go based on just one night’s research. Sorry.

In my silkworm booklet it says “each stage of the life cycle typically lasts for the following time period at 25 - 28°C: Ova 14 days (if not overwintering), larva 30 days, pupa 21 days and imago 14 days.“ I understand that to mean that if I use a different temperature then the life cycle period will be longer (or shorter). I do not think it is telling me that those temps are the only ones to use. Oh, hold on a minute, I’ve just read a bit further on and it says to keep them at "about 25°C but that larger silkworms appreciate a cooler temperature." Confusing isn't it?

As for the question about moving the tiny worms. If you can get a small piece of stiff netting (my silkworm company provided me with a small, round piece of plastic net to use) then place a piece of chow on top of the netting and gently put that on top of the worms. They will crawl through the net onto the chow and you can move them that way. Alternatively, I pick up the food itself (when it is nearly all gone and quite dry) with all the worms attached and move them onto a fresh piece of chow. I then pick up any strays with my fingernails. They really don’t seem as fragile as stated. I always move the bigger worms by hand.

I hope something in the above was helpful.

Colleen

PS. Apparently, if a new born baby grew the same amount as a silkworm then it would be the same size as a double decker bus in just four weeks!

Thanks for the update on your temps. I'm keeping this first batch under a lamp so that I can get them to grow faster, but if I can get these guys to breed then I plan on setting aside a group that gets heat and a group that stays at my house temp of 67 degrees or so. That way if I lose a group due to lack of heat, then I still have some other silkworms to fall back on.

I did notice something just now though when I looked at my petri dish. Looks like the majority of the silkies have moved away from my heat source (current temp reading is 77.7) and are on the cooler side of the dish that's furthest away from the lamp. It's probably just coincidence.