Please help with silkworms!

J-Man · 09-02-04, 11:16 AM

I recently got 500 silkworms. They were smaller than I expected so I need to grow them a bit more. I was going to buy chow, but my sister noticed that on the package it says they eat mulberry leaves.

She informed that we have a mulberry tree on our property! I went out, picked a leaf, and looked it up. Sure enough it was a red mulberry leaf. Is this ok to feed silkworms? I was just want to confirm. If it is, what is the proper way to feet it to them? How do I prepare it and what sort of environment? Thanks for any help!

justinO · 09-02-04, 01:36 PM

the only thing i've heard is that they eat the compressed green cubes.... which is probably mulberry leaves!

i'd research a bit more, or maybe someone else knows on here...... cuz that cubed stuff is REALLY expensive!

reptile boi · 09-02-04, 01:59 PM

justino,
the compressed green cubes are silkworm chow made of mulberry leaves and some other ingredients. Also, im pretty sure they would eat the leaves

Thanks,
Ben

J-Man · 09-02-04, 05:46 PM

Well, I put some leaves in and they are going nuts. They're tiny little silkworms but you can HEAR them all eating. the lot of them have already eaten about 10 leaves or so. This is insane...

Anybody know how fast they grow?

aaron · 09-02-04, 06:01 PM

Be careful feeding mulberry leaves unless you can get a steady supply of them. It's getting late in the year and if the leaves die off and you need to feed artificial food you might have a hard time getting them to go back to the cube stuff. That said your silkworms will grow very quickly if they have a constant supply of food and 500 silkworms will eat a lot of food. You can probably count on filling a large ziplock freezer bag stuffed with leaves and having them eat that within a day or so depending on their size!

good luck,
Aaron

J-Man · 09-02-04, 06:22 PM

Yeah I'm beginning to realize this. Well, as of now I have an entire tree full of them. Several hundred leaves, I'd say.

Seeing as how the leaves will start to die soon, how do you suggest I keep them? How will I stop them from dieing if I pick them? Can I put them in a ziplock bag and freeze them? I know I'm sounding a little demanding... feel free not to answer any of my questions. But thanks for any help and the help you already gave!

thunder · 09-02-04, 06:26 PM

you will not have any trouble switching them back to cubes. they are insects and are programmed to eat. they dont have preferences or even thoughts.

Cruciform · 09-09-04, 07:45 PM

My two feeder-turned-pets silkworms just stopped their feeding binge this morning and began spinning silk.

Holy cow is that stuff strong! I took some out and pulled on the strands and it took at least a pound of force to tear it. Pretty impressive for something so small.

I just wonder how to strip the tree out front of its leaves without killing it