Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What kind of substrate is suppose to be used for Silkworms? I see they sell Silkworm chow on the Mulberry farms website but I wasn't sure if you use that for the substrate or something else. Thanks in advance.

Sorry I'm not going to be much help, but I figured I may as well piggyback on this thread instead of starting another one. Anybody have a good site on raising your own silkworms? I just ordered a bunch of them from mulberryfarms to try out on my dragons (which I'm sure they'll like), and would like to raise my own when I see they do good.

These are posts from wideglide that I have saved. All the credit here goes to him. By the way, if you saw my post down the page a few days ago...I haven't been supplementing my silkies with any heat. They're living at 66-69 degrees F without any problems. Here you go...

GENERAL SILKWORM CARE

I did have to spend some time getting things the way I wanted to breed them. Once that has been setup I think they are very easy to breed. I've probably got 2500 eggs in my fridge and I've had silkies for a little over a month and a half.

I don't have time right now to put together a care sheet for them but I will do that in the next couple of days and post it here. Here's the basics.

The worms & coccoons:

Temps anywhere from 67-88. I've had them at the low end but not the high end. Mine generally stay 67-75 and do fine.

I keep them in a plastic rubbermaid tub with fairly low sides under a clamp lamp that is on during the day.

I feed them silkworm chow once a day (no water is necessary). Tiny worms get it grated right on top while bigger worms get chunks placed here and there.

You will be able to tell when they are ready to spin coccoons. I use toilet paper rolls cut into thirds dipped in parafin wax.

Takes about 3 days to spin then about a week and a half to hatch. Before hatching I get a hint of a strong odor every once in a while but only right next to my coccoons. I think it's either the liquid they use to dissolve the coccoons or a few that are decaying and have failed to hatch. Haven't narrowed it down yet.

Keep hatched moths at same temp and I separate males and females and place them in small, wax paper lined, rubermaid containers with lids and holes. When I have one of each they both go into a container, do their thing, and lay eggs (200-500) in about a day. Then they get fed to the dragons. I only feed the moths to the big dragon because I haven't found any info on the level of undigestible material in the moths yet.

The eggs:

Once eggs are layed I wait for them to turn from yellow to black and do one of two things. I either place them in the fridge for up to 5 years or put them in the incubator at 88 degress and about 75-80% humidity. When incubating eggs you don't have to have an incubator but it's a good idea. Details later.

The eggs will incubate for about 3 weeks and then hatch. Now I haven't hatched any eggs as of yet but everything seems to be exactly as it should and I should have some newborns in about a week.

If you want to get a head start on the care here's some websites to check out. As always there's a lot of conflicting info and I have found one or two indicate there's a lot more you need to do than is really necessary.

http://www.chateau-michel.org/silkworm_class.htm
http://www.pclaunch.com/~kayton/Silkworms/raising.htm
http://www.sericulum.com/index.html

These are what I have bookmarked but there's a couple more I have found I can't remember. Do a net search on silkworms and you'll find them. I think the best is the first listed.

SILKWORM CHOW INSTRUCTIONS

As far as keeping the chow goes I cook it up in the pan, poor it into a rubbermaid container (maybe 14"x6" then immediately place a sheet of seran wrap on top of it (especially before it cools). Press the seran wrap onto the chow so it clings to it. When you need some just peel back part of the seran wrap. Doing this way will help keep the moisture in the chow and keep it sterile. I guess if it's not sterile it can cause the worms harm. Now I used to wear rubber gloves when handling it but don't now and haven't had any problems. Make sure you have an air tight lid for the container as well.

After I pour it out of the pan there is always a good amount still in the pan which I let cool then get out with a plastic spoon. I usually just give it directly to the worms since I usually don't make more until I really need it. Keep in mind, though, miss a day of feeding and you will find the worms start to eat the little horns off the back of the other worms.

Grating the chow depends on how big the worms are. If they have just hatched you need to grate a layer of chow on the entire colony. This is because they do not have the ability to move to the chow. Do this every couple of days for about a week.

If they are a little bigger (maybe 1/2 inch or so) they have the ability to move to the chow so you can just cut it into small chunks and place it here and there. Observe the worms eating. If each chunk seems to be completely engulfed with worms that indicates you don't have enough different chunks of chow and the worms will not thrive.

When you start offering chunks make sure you let them completely dry out between feedings or you may get mold which will kill the worms.

Note: I've found that if I put the grater in the fridge and make it cold the chow will grate easier and you won't have a big clump suddenly fall off the grater onto the worms.

Wow, thanks a ton for all the great info! It sounds to me like maybe the process of raising silkworms is EXTREMELY time consuming. I was really excited to try them out with my beardies but know I am beginning to wonder if it would really be worth the time and effort? I mean, Mulberry farms has a minimum oreder of $30 so your talking like 250-500 worms plus $10 for the SW chow. Then you have to make sure they are fed every single day or they will start eating each other? I mean if you had to go away on a trip or vacation for even just a weekend you risk losing your entire colony. Then if I'm not mistaken the life span of SW as an actual worm is only around a month before it spins a cacoon and turns into a moth? So to use SW as a main food source instead of crix your looking at a minimum of $30 a month depending on how many beardies you have and a hechuva lot of work. Thanks again for all the great info!

No...you buy an order to get your colony started. After that you raise them and refrigerate the eggs. You'll have THOUSANDS of eggs stockpiled that you can hatch anytime you want. It's really very easy.

Silkworms don't eat eachother ever.
You don't need any substrate. Just use egg carton or coffee cup holders for them to sit on. (makes it easy to clean out the poo, just dump over a container, pick up the few worms that fall off and dump the poo out).

Silkworms can last quite a while..I have had worms for over two months before they started to coccoon. Just buy smaller than you need right now and they will last. Feed them once a day is all they need. Be generous to start, cutting back if you see alot of uneaten food left over the next day. After a few days you get an ideal how much they eat.

>>Silkworms don't eat eachother ever.
>>You don't need any substrate. Just use egg carton or coffee cup holders for them to sit on. (makes it easy to clean out the poo, just dump over a container, pick up the few worms that fall off and dump the poo out).
>>
>>Silkworms can last quite a while..I have had worms for over two months before they started to coccoon. Just buy smaller than you need right now and they will last. Feed them once a day is all they need. Be generous to start, cutting back if you see alot of uneaten food left over the next day. After a few days you get an ideal how much they eat.

you will notice they will have a black, cut off tip on them. I've witnessed silkies munching on other's horns and a clear liquid being excreted from the horn. Eventually the worm will die. I swear, I've seen it first hand because I ran out of chow once for a couple of days. I'm not saying they will completely eat each other but, yes, they will gnaw at that horn or anything else they think they can eat. Stick a piece of cardboard in there, starve them and I'll bet you any amount of money they will actually try to eat the edge of the cardboard just as if it were a leaf.

I'm not trying to be a jerk here but have you stopped feeding your worms and seen what happens? If you have then maybe I got a different strain or something. I can tell you I wasn't hallucinating when I saw it actually happen. Geez, I'm a little steamed now.
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Rob