Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have moths emerging from their cocoons, and I'm not sure what I should do with them. The first two worms to spin have now emerged, and they mated and laid eggs before I knew it. The eggs are attached to the underside of the lid of the container, and some have fallen down into other cocoons silk. What should I do about these eggs, and how should I handle the rest of the moths that will be emerging very soon? I have about 20 cocoons, and I plan on refrigerating most of the eggs and trying to hatch some. Please help.

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you can feed the adults to your herps. They don't fly, but hand feed, cup feed or just "attach" the moth to the screen.

Do not refrigerate the eggs until they have darkened (a few days - if they turn white they are not fertile) then put them in a small petrie dish or other small container that is DRY. Storing in the crisper/veggie part of the fridge is best b/c there is less temp fluctuation. They need a cooling period before emergence so you need to refrig all.

As for the eggs that have fallen into cocoons you can carefully release them with a small artist brush.

here's a site (read "eggs again" section in particular)

lele
Link

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

Thanks. For the moths that haven't emerged, should I do anything differently(place their cocoons in bags, etc.), or should I just let them all mate in the container their cocoons are in and lay egss all over the inside of the container?

LOL!! I hear ya! For future reference, you may want to put toilet paper rolls into the silkie container when they are close to pupating. They will seek out a sheltered place and then this way when they emerge they have to climb out of the tube and are less likely to deposit eggs everywhere.

For your current situation, I would put a few cocoons in separate boxes. You can place them in paper bags rolled close but if you do not know they have eclosed a female will abort her eggs before mating (if your goal is to collect eggs from as many pairings as possible). The best thing to do is once you see a pair mating or can distinguish a male from female put the pair in a separate container (best to do before they begin mating b/c if you dislodge them they may not resume.) Then put the female into a paper bag, box, whatever and you can collect her eggs much easier. Remember, if they don’t turn dark within three days after laying they are infertile).

In the cocoon stage, the females are generally much larger than the males. Once eclosed the females have bodies that look out of proportionally large for their head and wings, (their body is long, too) and the males look of normal proportion and smaller. So you can
take one of each and put them in together and they will mate. Leave them be until they separate on their own. If you are NOT looking to collect a zillion eggs and just want to feed off the moths then it really doesn’t matter much.

Hope this helps!

Lele

Here’s a site with a few male/female pix
Link

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

Thanks - I won't bother you anymore on this subject, I just wanted to tell you I did use paper towel and t.p. tubes in a box when the silkies started spinning. I knew enough to get that far, I was just lost on what to do now that they are emerging(it seemed to happen so fast). I've got them all in one box, where it looks like a honeycomb of cocoon tombs. I'll try to pair them up as they emerge like you said. While I've got you - Are the females done after 1 laying, so I can go ahead and feed them off, or do they lay multiple times? Will they mate more than once? I promise no more questions about moths Thanks again.

No problem - ask away I have a fondness for lepidoptera and have had to struggle on where to draw the feeding line, but I rear many species and know a fair amount.

I guess I thought they weren't in tubes b/c of the way the eggs got all over the silk. You can place the tubes in another box and spread them around a bit. If you keep them all piled up you will end up with an egg mess and unless you watch them 24/7 you will not know which are fertile and which are not, whereas if you see a pair actually mate you can be pretty certain they will be. if a female does not mate in a day or so she will abort all her eggs and will not mate.

As for laying they do little clumps and each will lay hundreds (literally) of eggs. You could take some unmated females and feed them of or wait until they seem to be done. The male you can feed off anytime. A female will not mate more than once (it wipes out every last bit of life she has), and will die soon after laying all her eggs. Some species wil mate more than once (the males) but I do not believe the Bombyx will.

Hope this helps

lele

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0.1 veiled - Luna
0.2 house geckos - Gaia & Tia (MIA
0.2 felines - Kyndra and Líta

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