Saturniids
Well, I’ve decided to take my silk hobby to the next level… I’m going to try to raise giant silkmoths. The Bombyx mori that I’ve been rearing so far, are tiny, tame, and totally flightless – the wild silkmoths are exquisitely beautiful, strong fliers, and really, really HUGE…
Polyphemus (Antherea polyphemus) is the largest American native silkmoth, with a wingspan of up to six inches. I’m pretty sure that we’ve got a decent wild population of this one around here, and I can hope for wild pairings. I’ve ordered 9 cocoons, and should have polyphemus moths some time late spring / early summer. These eat oak, willow, and several other kinds of leaves, so should be relatively easy to feed. They are close relatives of the Tussah silkmoth, (Antherea pernyi). I haven’t heard of anyone who’s made silk from polyphemus cocoons, so we’ll see how it goes.
The Cynthia Moth (Samia cynthia) is an Oriental import; they were established in several European locations and a few spots on the American east coast, in attempts to introduce them as a silk source. Their host plant, Ailanthus altissima, or Chinese Tree of Heaven, was introduced along with them, and has become a weed tree. I have 10 of these cocoons on order, and hopefully will have enough males and females to ensure a pairing. I am pretty sure that there aren’t any around here to get wild pairings, but they are supposed to breed easily in captivity. They eat ligustrum as well as Ailanthus, so if I can’t find the Ailanthus (there is a lot of it around here, or at least there was last year… ) then I’ll still be able to feed them. Cynthia moths are also referred to as Eri moths, and the cocoons are used for a variety of wild silk in India and China.
There are several other varieties of silkmoth, including Luna, Cecropia, and Promethia (American natives) and Indian Moon, Royal, Yamamai, and Atlas (and dozens of others) that I could try…
wow. pretty.
do they make different kinds of silk?
Yes. I haven’t worked with them yet, so I don’t really know what they’ll be like. I’m guessing that the polyphemus will be similar to Tussah silk, but I’ve never seen Eri silk.
In Awe
Really-WOW!
Umm, Personal question, how much square footage are you working with? I live in 750sq feet and share your interests in silk worms.
I remember back on the CBC, They got some silk worms from Treenway….Do you feed your worms the mulberry branches? If so where from? If not ???
Kind regards,
Michelle
Re: In Awe
My house is a kind of cobbled-on affair; the original house was 1100 square feet; it’s more like 1400 now. I keep the silkworms in my Soap Room, which is a 10×10 bedroom that I’ve dedicated to my soap and supplies. They fit in there well, because the drier air prevents mold (I keep them covered between feedings, so it doesn’t dry out) and the dehumidifier keeps it warm.
Yes, I feed them mulberry. It’s all they can eat. I have a large, full-sized tree of it in my front yard. The fruitless varieties are often used as landscape plants. I also have an oak so I can feed the polyphemus, and I have ligustrum so I can feed the Cynthias. At least, I hope they wanna eat it!
Re: In Awe
Another “Dumb Question”, is it hard to grow Mulberry or anytype of silk worm food up here in canada? Do you know any tricks off hand?
Re: In Awe
I imagine it depends on what part of Canada you’re in. According to one website (I just googled it up – look for Morus alba) – white mulberry is an invasive tree in parts of Ontario. There’s a native species, red mulberry or Morus rubra – I don’t know how the silkworms would do on it, and probably not the best idea to feed them endangered species leaves!
As far as the Giants – they eat a variety of plants, many of which are common landscape trees and shrubs, like ligustrum (privet) and oak.
repeat!
then you will start a school…
Re: repeat!
:chuckle:
“The Michael Cook School of Obscure but Beautiful Lost Handcraft.”
I don’t think I want to eat one of these. If it were yucky, that’d be a big mouthful of yuck.
In the best of all possible worlds, I want to raise LUNA moths, and make magic-moon-silk. It just sounds so cool. Whether it would look half as cool as it sounds, I have no idea.
I’ll keep everyone posted. I should have hungry caterpillars within a week! I found someone who is going to send me Eri silkmoth eggs. Whee!
oh, wait a sec…
hey,
so what’s the process with these guys? at some point you kill them? do you take their cocoon or something…not sure how it works.
Oooh.
I found you via the knitting community and I’ve been looking through your projects and marveling. Especially since you explain it well and I’m not just thinking, ‘That looks cool but I don’t really know what anything is.’ Heh.
So you raise your own moths, spin your own silk, spin your own wool..why no angora rabbits? 🙂
Yay! Go for it! I can’t wait to hear about your progress.
Re: oh, wait a sec…
The bombyx silkworms are “stifled” (yes, a polite word for “baked”) to keep them from destroying the cocoon. I let some of them each year hatch out to breed. One of my next experiments will be processing the hatched cocoons to spin them.
The giant silkworms are typically allowed to hatch. Some of the species can be reeled, but not quite the same as bombyx.
Re: Oooh.
Hmm… well, although the semi-tropical silkmoths really love the climate in Dallas, I’m not so sure what the heavy-coated angoras would think – plus, my cat has enough mats.
I might get one eventually, but it’s probably a “when we get our next house” type thing. I had and enjoyed pet rabbits as a child, just not sure how the extra-fluffy ones would fit into our lifestyle.
Mr. Cook you are a big ole FREAK!!! More worms in my house eeeppppp!!!
Hugs!
Yup…. and these can FLY!!
Re: Oooh.
About the rabbits . . you could do what I did and get a Jersey Wooly. They aren’t as astonishingly fluffy as the angoras, but the fuzzy things still produce lovely spinnable fiber. Some have longer hair than others, but they look like actual rabbits instead of piles of fluff.
I found your LJ through Spinwitch, and your reeling silk post. Gorgeous pictures, and much to aspire to. I am just now getting into soapmaking, on a slippery slide down. 🙂
-L
Re: Oooh.
What kind of soapmaking are you doing? I do a cold-process vegetable lye recipe; I belong to a big Texas group with all kinds of different soapmakers.
And welcome to my wild weird world!
Re: oh, wait a sec…
hmmm…wow.
how about beekeeping?
🙂
Re: oh, wait a sec…
Still on The List. I found out that they’re OK in my area, and learned a lot about them… but I’m eating basically zero sugar these days, so the honey wouldn’t be much fun. In the Dream World of the Big Eventual House, there will be honeybees. Even if only to pollinate the vegetable and fruit plants.
Re: oh, wait a sec…
yeah, and beeswax!! made lipbalm recently with my hunk of beeswax. yum.
at your eventual house, you’ll probably need a maid. i’ll trade for Vanishing Domestic Arts training.
🙂
Re: oh, wait a sec…
Ooh, ooh… and we can do Geisha Day, with the handmade embroidered silk kimono, and Medieval Day, with the high-forehead hat with the linen veil (learning to spin linen, too…) and Renaissance Day with all those beads and stitches…
I had the most frustrating experience with beeswax. I got like 25 pounds of the stuff, good, clean, nice beeswax… filled up the huge taper-making can (’cause I make dipped taper candles, natch…) and it WON’T BURN. Hours of research, lots of different attempts with differing wick sizes, consulting with various beekeepers and candlemakers, etc., etc. ad nauseum… and they melt like nasty plastic candles and won’t burn up, even with the thick wick run double. I think somehow I got wax from non-flammable bees. Next effort will be blending the wax with paraffin, to see if that’ll yield something useable. I’m almost out of my good hand-made white paraffin candles.
Wow, that’s really ambitious! Good for you. 🙂
Re: oh, wait a sec…
Seems like I remember that one of the local candlemakers here adds somethign to their candles, to make the wax a bit stiffer, and make it burn more smoothly. Stearin? Don’t have the right references with me at work, but I think that was it.
Re: oh, wait a sec…
I have stearic acid (same thing, just formulated as chunks instead of a powder) for lotions – I considered putting some in, but that tends to *raise* the burn temp, not lower it. I’m really wondering if there’s some bizarre contamination issue or something with this wax – it’s clear when melted, so shouldn’t be any crud in it, but it just melts as if it were full of something it shouldn’t be.
We’ll see if blending down to about half-and-half with paraffin will sort it out.
Lovely, lovely bugs
The pic of the polyphemus reminds me of a knitting project I’ve been contemplating for a while. Last summer, I knitted a shawl pattern called “The Butterfly”, and thought, gee, wouldn’t it be neat to do one shaped and colored like a butterfly. I’d been thinking luna moth, and either painting the finished shawl for the markings, or spend some quality time with a bunch of bobbins. But the polyphemus is lovely too, and is close to the shades of rayon chenille I’d inherited last summer. And that shape would drape nicely around the shoulders, it’s close to the Faroese shawl I finished this winter.
So much for no new projects until I finish something already on the needles.
*toddles off to find graph paper*
Re: Lovely, lovely bugs
Ooh, I’d *love* to see, if you end up doing it! (graph, or shawl either one).
There’s charted design for an Eri silkmoth (Samia cynthia) if that helps any…
http://www.somethingincom.com/Eri__Silk2.JPG
I keep thinking I’ve seen a closer version, but can’t find it online.
I’m so excited… I should livestock by Monday! I am most jazzed about the eggs I’m getting – I know that the cocoons will hatch out and be huge and fantastic, but the ones that I’m getting in eggs, will be makin’ wit da silk within a month or so.