Silks

[Pogie]

As some of you know. My silk eggs have started hatching. YEAH

Now just wondering . . . do I start off with tiny ones when I introduce her to them or can they be any size. Guess what Im asking is does the rule of "space btw eyes" apply to silks. Never fed them and dunno if shell eat them, but theyre here and Im gonna give it a go

 

[crypticdragons]

The space between the eyes thing is not a "rule" it is a suggestion. But as it applies to soft bodied worms like horns/silks/butters/etc, you do not have to apply it. Granted, do not feed them something so large it will choke them. But they do not have to be "size appropriate" to the eye space suggestion.

 

[Pogie]

He he . . . we have a winner !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bought approx 100 silks today for 5 bucks. Still fairly small about 0.39 inches but still 5x bigger than mine that just hatched. Wanted to see if P would eat them. I mean I dont wanna go through all this trouble for NOTHING.
Gosh, I put the worm on my thumb and she gobbled it up in 2 seconds.... took another same story and again.

Gave her her crickets, she had about 10 (Normally eats between 7 and 12 per day) and then tried a silk again. As I thought maybe she was just really hungry and wont eat it now. Boy was I wrong. It was gone off my finger quicker than you could say silkworm LOL

But theyre tiny and I still want them to grow so she wont be getting any more for about a week to two weeks BUT guess this is a good indication she likes them.

 

[Justus85]

I had the opposite experience with Rex. They just aren't really lively enough for him to hold interest. For the expense, time invested, and how delicate silks are...seems I am better off rotating Rex between crix, dubias, and maybe some other staple. I have around 30 left and just trying to see if I can get them to cocoon. Kinda just for the heck of it.

 

[Pogie]

LOL, well as I said I have them anyway . . . its actually the kids project. They breed ad raise them each year, only this year Ill have other uses for them as well.

I havent had any issues with getting mine grown/cocooned and to lay eggs. ATM there are about 100 hatching daily (Grrrrrrrrrr) really annoying to transfer those little buggers to leaves.

Ill keep about 100 to cocoon and lay eggs for the next batch.

Did some reading on breeding them throughout the year and it doesnt seem toooo complicated, so will give it a go especially since I found a place stocking artificial silkworm chow so I can have it on hand for when the mulberys go off and I cant get hold of beet greens

 

[Justus85]

My batch from Mulberry Farms was dieing off at an alarming rate after a few weeks. They would get close to 2 inches and then randomly die off. I hear the worms from these big operations have a tendency to do that because of built up pathogens. I am about to try buying from a smaller operation "Lady Silkworm" and see how that goes. I chat with her on gmail all the time, she has a wealth of info on facebook. Just search LadySilkworm all one word.