# Success with Silkworm breeding!



## Miss Lily (Oct 3, 2008)

At the end of last year I had some silkworms pupate, emerge as moths , mate and lay eggs. I then put the eggs into the fridge for a few months of diapause. About 10 days ago I took them out of the fridge and put them into a converted humid tub on top of Amy's vivarium where it was nice and warm, and yesterday the tiny silkies started to hatch! I had 14 yesterday and that was followed by another 70 or so today! I am so excited as I have never tried to breed these before and if I can the free food will be a total win!:2thumb:

Here's a few pics - in the first one you can see the holes in the eggs where the babies emerged!









The eggs - the grey/purple ones are yet to hatch and the white ones are empty cases.


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## mrhoyo (Mar 29, 2007)

That's great. It's a shame moths are involved, the Mrs is terrified of them so there's no chance of me breeding them.

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## mooshu (Mar 24, 2010)

Congrats mate! I hate moths too but would love to breed these! the food in expensive though! Unless you found a cheap alternative! I have bought eggs before and they hatched no problem! Took a while to grow but it was nice top have so many silkies to treat my reps with! Im looking into breeding a different typr of livefood now be cause my cham just refuses to eat any roaches! fussy little :censor:


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## Miss Lily (Oct 3, 2008)

:lol2: I never used to like moths - that was until my first silkmoth emerged from it's pupa! OMG! They are the cutest little things ever - like tiny flying teddy bears! I couldn't bear to feed it to the chameleon so I kept it and it lived for 9 days! They don't fly at all - they just flutter their wings to attract a mate and that's it! They just mate, lay eggs and die - you don't even need to touch the moths if you don't want to. 

This is just far too cute - this one was my first moth - I even named it Moffy, lol!


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## mooshu (Mar 24, 2010)

Miss Lily said:


> :lol2: I never used to like moths - that was until my first silkmoth emerged from it's pupa! OMG! They are the cutest little things ever - like tiny flying teddy bears! I couldn't bear to feed it to the chameleon so I kept it and it lived for 9 days! They don't fly at all - they just flutter their wings to attract a mate and that's it! They just mate, lay eggs and die - you don't even need to touch the moths if you don't want to.
> 
> This is just far too cute - this one was my first moth - I even named it Moffy, lol!
> image


Thats not cute thats the face of evil! :devil:

How long did they take to pupate? and where did you get the mulberry from?


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## Miss Lily (Oct 3, 2008)

They really are cute, believe me! They are so small - only about a cm long! They aren't like moths that get in the house and fly around the lights - they are very well behaved, lol! I got some mulberry chow from the silkwormstore and I also have a mulberry tree in the garden that I have recently planted! So, next year I should have loads of free food for the hundreds of baby silkies that I hatch! Free food ftw!

Had 12 babies hatch on Tuesday, 65 yesterday and I have even more hatched out today that I need to go and put onto some food! They will be a lot of work,but it will be worth it - silkworms are so expensive!


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## mooshu (Mar 24, 2010)

I think Im going to give it a go! the top of my GTP's viv is nice and warm 24/7 so I wont need a heat mat, God I hope these moths are going to be small! how long do the eggs take to hatch after being laid? and how long do they pupate for?


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## Miss Lily (Oct 3, 2008)

They pupate for 7 - 10 days and incubation of eggs is the same. Mine were laid at the end of last year and i put them in the fridge and took them out 10 days ago. They took just over a week. I put a toilet roll tube in with the puae so that they have somewhere to lay their eggs. I think you get better hatch rates if the are left in dipause in the fridge for at least 4 weeks. If you can't cope with the moths then just feed them off, but they really are ok - I don't usually like moths that much but these are really sweet! They even wash their false eyelash looking antennae with ther front feet!


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