Eri baby update
The Eri silkworms are doing well… for the most part.
Bad news: Of the 22 baby silkworms, 8 died. They kept wandering off the leaves, despite my best efforts to keep them focused on the eating task at hand. Fortunately, there are still about five or six dozen that have yet to hatch… so still should be plenty.
Good news: The fourteen that are still going, have really started to grow. They haven’t yet slipped their skins and changed instars, but they should do so soon. They are noticeably different in color from the newer ones, and significantly larger.
They all cluster on a single leaf. I figured out that it was best to keep the twig of ligustrum in an orchid-tube, so that it stays fresh – it seems that most of the problems came about when I had to move them from leaf to leaf as they dried up, about twice each day – the moves were rough on them, and they got confused upon moving. You can see that some of them are MUCH bigger than the others – they are just a couple of days older. They eat all of the usable space on a single leaf, and then migrate to a new one. In this shot, you can see where they have begun to move. All the little black specks are caterpillar poop (called “frass” in the polite language of sericulture…) and it’s an excellent sign that the caterpillars are eating well. Once the bombyx worms get really going, it’s an every-other-day job to muck out their trays. I line the trays with freezer paper to make the process at least a little less noxious.
Here, you can see them on their new leaf. I gave them some time to get moved (okay, and I watched Matrix Reloaded on DVD…) and by the time I got the picture taken, they had already chewed a big hole in it. I imagine that they’ll run out of leaf again soon; it seems like they’re really picking up the pace of their eating.
Aw. You are getting me caring about these worms. :O
Hee. I try not to get too attached to them… they do tend to “fail to thrive” in droves…
At least they’re not like the bombyx worms – these, I have every hope that they’ll come out as beautiful moths. The bombyx cocoons, I have to stifle about 90% of them.
That’s a very high percentage. You try not to get attached? 🙂
amazing! I really enjoy watching this proccess!
Finding your posts about silkworms has thrilled me to no end. I raised a couple groups of the Bombyx Mori ones. But I still have a lot to learn. I only raised them to study for a series of paintings.
That’s not the percentage that “fail to thrive”, that’s the percentage he boils so he can make silk. (I want silk)
Oh yes, well it would make sense not to get attached to those. 😮
I’ve really enjoyed them. I admit, I haven’t drawn them as much as I ought to… they are certainly interesting to watch.
Yup. I have a very small “fail to thrive” percentage – probably 10 – 15%, which still means dozens and dozens in an average brood, but not too bad. I tend to be fairly careful with them.
You mean you want to have some thread, or you want to make it?
I think of them as tiny livestock. I make sure that their lives are as smooth and good as possible, their deaths as easy as I can manage. But I definitely don’t name them (if I could tell them apart in the first place!) and I don’t think of them like pets.
I want to be able to afford to buy it.
I do not need another hobby, and if I start another one, it will not be raising worms. (I need to keep telling myself that).
I’m jealous of you and your silkworms.