# Silk worms advice



## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Hey all,
I am thinking of starting silkworm breeding.What are the basic housing and temps requirements?How can I get the food easily?How expensive is it?How much worms do I need for a starting breeding colony?Any info on their development (time needed ,how fast they grow)appreciated.


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## Silky (Mar 1, 2007)

thorrshamri said:


> Hey all,
> I am thinking of starting silkworm breeding.What are the basic housing and temps requirements?How can I get the food easily?How expensive is it?How much worms do I need for a starting breeding colony?Any info on their development (time needed ,how fast they grow)appreciated.



Hi

I grow silkworms. I start mine off in petri dishes and when they're larger move them over into small tupperware boxes. The temps need to be around 20 - 28 dc I'd say. I woke up in the morning to feed them about a week or two ago and had a couple that looked like they were about to die. They were curled up and didn't look a good colour. The only thing I could think was the temp had dropped in the night and they were two cold. My theory turned out to be correct because was I the petri dish on a heat mat they quickly perked up and started looking healthy again. You can also use temps to regulate how quickly they grow. The warmer they're the more they eat and the more they eat the quicker they grow.

I have some silkworms for sale on ebay. You might be interested in buying them. They're already an inch long though so if you wanted to go through the whole process from egg to finish you'll need to get the eggs somewhere else. I have powdered mulberry chow which is what people use to feed silkworms unless they have a mulberry tree handy. I could sell you some chow if you wanted some. I didn't put the chow on ebay because I was thinking someone would by the silkworms and feed them straight to their pet so there would be no need to feed the silkworms.

I'm only selling 50 silkworms on ebay because I haven't been growing many at once. I expect 50 would be a good amount to start a breeding colony. I must warn you though that it's quite tricky breeding them. At least it has been for me. I still haven't managed to get any eggs to hatch from the silkworms I've let cocoon. I'm still not sure what I'm doing wrong. Also growing the silkworms themselves can be a bit of trial and error at the start. I find the hardest part of growing silkworms is when they first hatch because it's annoying having to move them around when they tiny. It's very time consuming if you have lots of them. If you need to move them around when they're small it's best to use a fine paint brush like you'd use for painting models as they're quite fragile. Also when they're small they ten d to die from dehydration if they can't get to food. Even if food is placed very close to them they might not be able to find their way to it so it usually requires a helping hand from myself.

I'd say from when they hatch to cocooning it takes about 6-8 weeks depending on what temp they're kept at and how frequently they have been getting fed. I think the main thing when growing silkworms is to start off with a small number as they will be easier to care for they you can grow more when you know you've got the hang of it.


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Thanks for your kind offer,actually I am going to Hamm so there will be loads of silkworms there:lol2: ,but I may indeed order you some food later on,if postage doesn't make it too expensive.
One thing is not clear to me,they breed as butterfly stage is reached I suppose,so when the cocoons hatch?You must need plenty of space to make butterflies breed:grin1:


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## Silky (Mar 1, 2007)

thorrshamri said:


> Thanks for your kind offer,actually I am going to Hamm so there will be loads of silkworms there:lol2: ,but I may indeed order you some food later on,if postage doesn't make it too expensive.
> One thing is not clear to me,they breed as butterfly stage is reached I suppose,so when the cocoons hatch?You must need plenty of space to make butterflies breed:grin1:


Yes that's correct they breed when they're silkmoths. You don't actually need that much space though because they can't fly. You can tell males and females apart quite easily. Females are usually alot larger than the males. I have some eggs in the fridge which I'm going to try and hatch at some point. I've read that you need to keep them cold for a few months before they can hatch. Some people say that if they leave the eggs when they're laid they hatch within a couple of weeks but mine never have so not sure if this is possible or not.


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

What is the price of food for silkworms?


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## Rembrandt (Dec 29, 2006)

I've had some great success with raising silkworms from the egg stage but haven't tried to breed. Biggest problem i've had is "cooking" the powdered food to make the artificial feed; it stinks!


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## LFBP-NEIL (Apr 23, 2005)

weve got chow on our site, we tried breeding them but they are too time consuming and hatch rates were low so we gave up! The eggs will hatch without the cold spell, the moths reproduce quite readily thats what they have been bred to do, they dont fly, they dont eat they just mate for a fortnight and die. The problem is getting the food supply and keeping everything sterile because the chows main ingredient is agar and as you will know from school science projects thats what is used to breed bacteria cultures with. The worms will grow rapidly with plenty of food and warmth. My conclusions were that silkworms are fine to buy as eggs and if you have the time hatch and use as a feed, but to sustain as a breeding colony would require a lot of time and patience as like previously mentioned the young worms do not survive well we typically got 100 moths from 1000 eggs. The chinese seem to be masters at silkworm production but they have acres of fresh mulberry and thousands of employees to feed them.


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## thorrshamri (Jul 4, 2006)

Unfortunately,there were no silkworms at all in Hamm


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## repoman (Jan 16, 2007)

i read up abit on these and all that i read was that they are treated so they are ok for growing on,but you cant get a breeding colony going,
abit like trout and triployds they are heat treated to kill the sex gene so they can never reproduce,
quote me if i am wrong :lol2:


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## Silky (Mar 1, 2007)

Your thinking of buttaworms.


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