Moths and Eggs!

This update is for Jenni, who has been giving me a hard time about not having a new entry.  What can I say, it takes time for silkworms to emerge. 

What's happened since the last post?

I took about 50 of the white cocoons, cut them open, removed the pupa and shed skin saving the cocoon for later processing.  I'm after a lofty spun yarn I can knit or crochet with, not a fine reeled filament, so cutting the cocoons doesn't effect my final product.  However, I did save and stifle about 20 intact cocoons to reel at a later time. 

pupas removed from cocoon.

I took the pupas I removed to a local exotic animal shop called Animal Trax.  Charlie, the resident Bearded Dragon at the shop loved eating them.

The remaining white cocoons and all of the colored cocoons have been given a chance to emerge, mate and lay eggs.  The results from the colored guys have been very interesting.  Here it is in a nutshell.

Natural/white cocoons = white moths and cream colored eggs
Glowing cyan cocoons = white moths with a blue skin that shows between segments and in females scent gland, and blue eggs.

Freshly laid Glowing Cyan

Cotton candy cocoons= pink moths with darker pink skin showing between segments and pink eggs.

Cotton Candy Moths and Cocoon

Magic purple cocoons= white moths with purple skin showing between segments, and tan eggs.

Colored moths laid colored eggs based on the color of the female. The intensity of the female's body color/cocoon color is also evident in the egg color. The male's color seems to have no effect on the eggs.

I don't know if it is coincidence, but the moths fed Magic Purple are consistently taking longer to emerge/getting stuck in their cocoons and having to be cut out, and emerging with "bald spots" possibly from trying to escape from their cocoons.  

Silk moths and cocoons from colored chow
(clockwise from the top):
Magic Purple, Glowing Cyan, Cotton Candy. 
The Cyan and Cotton Candy moths are mating. 
The larger of each pair is the female.

Eggs (clockwise from top left corner):
Freshly laid Glowing cyan,
Day old Glowing Cyan that have turned
 dark as a sign of being fertilized.
Newly laid Cotton Candy from my
brightest moth.  Day old Cotton
Candy showing no color change,
 Natural colored day old eggs showing
 signs of fertility, ??

Cocoons!



cup of blaze, and deblazed cocoons


 All the silkies have now started or finished their cocoons.  Whoo hoooo!!!!!  The endless feeding and cleaning rituals that have taken up 2-3 hrs of every day the last 2 weeks are over.  Now, I just have to figure out what to do with all of those cocoons.  I have started removing the blaze.  Those are the first fibers the worms spin.  They act as a support structure for the cocoon. 

I plan on selecting a few of the best for breeding and will let all of the colors emerge.  However, I am hopful that my jr. sericulturist wil be open to the idea of stiffeling most of them.  Somehow, the concept of 150+ moths emerging and doing what they do does NOT sound appealing.



Cocoon with blaze still attatched.





Variation in size and shape of cocoons.



Color Variation L-R: natural, Glowing Cyan, Magic Purple,
unknown mix of Purple and Cotton Candy or Cyan ?,
Cotton Candy


  

L-R natural, Glowing Cyan, Magic Purple, unknown mix of
Magic Purple and Glowing Cyan or Cotton Candy,
Cotton Candy

 

65 natural cocoons in a "rearing container".



Color Wheel of Silkworms and the Begining of the End

Color Wheel of Silkworms

The most recent pictures of my candy colored fellows.  I have now tried 3 different colors of chow.  Glowing Cyan, Magic Purple, and Cotton Candy.  Although, the manufacturer doesn't recommend feeding different colors of chow to the same silkworm, I just couldn't resist.  So far, none have exploded, well not unless you count the "gut dump" which is just beyond disgusting, but that is another post entirely. 

BTW, it is interesting to note the "gut dump" of the colored fellows tends to coordinate with their bodies or surprisingly, to me, is a pastel shade of their body color.  Ick!

Clockwise from center top: Cotton Candy, Magic Purple/Cotton Candy, Magic Purple, Magic Purple/Glowing Cyan, Glowing Cyan, Glowing Cyan/Cotton Candy. Natural in center.

This little guy is by far my favorite.  He makes me think of the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland.  I fed him Glowing Cyan for several days, then switched to Cotton Candy for a day.  It may be hard to tell in these photos, but his body is lilac, his belly periwinkle and his feet and tail are pink.  

What a sweet face.(mask)

I promise I'm not squishing him.

Again, I am not squishing him.  No matter how horrible this photo seams, he was not harmed in any way.

 The Beginning of the End

My first voyage into silkworm rearing is coming to a close.  The "big kids" are all spinning cocoons and only about 60 worms are left.  I expect most if not all of those will be ready to spin tomorrow.  

about 6-8 hrs of work

 This is one of my Glowing Cyan silkies and a cocoon that one of his Cyan buddies finished.  The color is very slight in natural light.  I still don't know if it changes under a black light, but I'm curious to find out.

Magic purple silkies are spinning up a pinkish color and the Cotton Candies are lagging behind and haven't started spinning yet.  I'll take some pictures of those later .

Glowing Cyan Silkworm and cocoon

Do you need a sure fire way to scare solicitors from your doorstep and ensure they never return?

Offer them some candy. 

  

Candy colored silkworms that is.

"Glowing Cyan", Au Natural, "Magic Purple"

   

Nope, these are not an experiment in genetic engineering gone wrong.  Nor are they the latest in a series of failed attempts by the Easter bunny's cousin, Earl, to replace Jelly beans.  These lucky fellows get their lovely hues from a special chow that has dye included in it. 

Before you go get the food coloring out of the cupboard, you should know that not just any old dye will work.  Reasearchers have spent quite a bit of effort figuring out exactly what dyes will and won't do the trick and they aren't very keen on sharing their secrets.  But you can check out these links to learn more:

http://175.41.146.203/etpl/pipeline.jsp?t=1276

 http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-silkworm-diet-silk-medical-advantages.html  

 http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?WO=2010096025&IA=SG2010000059&DISPLAY=STATUS

If you're shaking your head thinking what a waste of time it is coloring silkworms when the world has greater problems, then put your mind at ease.  The dye passes from the silkworms into their silk resulting in silk fibers that don't require dyeing.  That translates to a savings in water, energy, time and chemicals reducing the carbon footprint of the silk industry.  Scientist are also looking into possible uses in the medical field.  Antibiotic silk bandage anyone?   

I got my exotic colored silkworm chow from Nancy at http://www.ladysilkworm.com/index.html . 

I highly recommend giving her a try.  She is a super sweet lady who loves silkies,  and has been super helpful with excellent customer service and prompt shipping. 

I started my colored guys with Glowing Cyan, and Magic Purple.  At first, they wouldn't eat the colored chow.   I mixed it with their regular chow and gradually weaned them over.  Since then, I have done a few experiments with the colors and tried to keep track of how they  develop. 

The cyan color develops slower than the Purple.  It took 2 days and 1 day respectively for the worms to show a hint of color, and another 2 days for them to copletely develope. 

I also tried switching colored food after the color had developed, feeding the cyans some purple and the purples some cyan.  The cyan picked up a purple tinge after 1 day, where the purple being fed cyan took 2-3 days to develope the same color.  Those have all been fed blue for the last 2 days and the color has been constant.  I just got a batch of "Cotton Candy" /pink and will let you know how that turns out.

Silkworms on plain and colored chows:  Au Natural, fed 1 day on "Magic Purple", fed "Magic Purple" for 4 days, fed "Glowing Cyan" for 4 days followed by "Magic Purple" for one, "Glowing Cyan" for 5 days.

Checking the spinning wheel to see if it's "up to snuff".

Silkworm Growth Update and the "Blues"

The silkies in these pictures are the most advanced.  They have been among the first to molt and I suspect/hope will be the first to cocoon.   About 2 days ago, I tried using the Cyan colored chow with this group.  The chow is supposed to color the worms, and if fed continuously up to cocoon, it should also color the cocoons and the resulting silk.  The longer they eat the food, the more intense their color should become. 

Day 1 of the colored food was not good.  They refused to eat and as a result, did not grow.  Then, I got smart and mixed the colored and regular chows together.  They ate like champions.  Over the next few days, I will attempt to wean them over to the blue chow exclusively and see what happens.  This bunch is under the ownership of my oldest son.  Ownership means he gets to name them all.  I am calling them the Blueberry Gang since he named one of them Blueberry.

I also have a group that I am going to start on purple chow.  My daughter is the owner of that group.  I'll post pics of their progress later.



Day 16



Day 17

 

Day 19



One of the "Blueberry Gang" with a regular fellow on Day 19.



In Small Things Forgotten

With all the excitement/tragedy of the last few days, many less important, less urgent things have fallen to the wayside as they should.  However, now as our community is moving from emergency mode into recovery mode, I'll take a quick moment to update on a few "small things forgotten".

Most all of the silkworms have survived our powerless days.  In truth, we only had 2 days without power before escaping to family in an area unaffected by recent events.  Still, no power = no incubator and temps were quite cool after the storm.  My solution to keep our smallest family memebers safe, heat packs. The kind you use for a sore back that heat when exposed to air.  Luckily I had one in our emergency kit.


These are the oldest most advanced worms at 14 days.  They have just started their 4th instar and seem to grow by the hour.

To date, I have only had 2 fatalities.   I posted previously about having 3 deaths, then Lazarus returning to life.  Turns out another that I thought had died, also returned to life.  He has been dubbed tiny because he is the smallest of our brood and definately behind everyone even his hatch mates.

Two things are becoming abundantly clear to me. 
1. My skills as a coroner are rubbish!
2. The zombie theory is starting to sound less far fetched.

  The second and most recent death was the result of an injury as we returned home yesterday.  My husband accidentally dropped the incubator.  About a dozen silkworms in an open container went flying across the floor.  Which was problematic as they blend into the carpeting very well.  We spent some time trying to find them all.  My husband was very upset with himself.  While I am sorry the little guy didn't make it, I am amazed that I have as many as I do still living. Last rough count was about 160.  YIKES!  :o)

They just get cuter with age.

Now that they're growing up, they aren't as creepy.  Whooo hooooo!!!!!! 

8 days old



10 days old.

My 7 yr old LOVES them!

Just like wiggly teddy bears. 





Lazarus has risen!

Yesterday, I wrote about my 3 dead silkworms.  I have no idea how it happened, but this morning, I discovered that the fellow who plunged to his death, the one I dropped, was crawling around happy as can be.  Well, as happy as any worm can be in the dump.  That's what I'm calling the container where I keep all the muck from cleaning out the silkworm habitats.  It doubles as a graveyard and will later be used for compost.  


Lazarus chomping on chow

Not to sound calluous, but it escapes me how this little guy  survived.  Of the three, he was the one who I felt absolutely certain was dead.  So now I'm left pondering is this a miraculous wonder, or am I now in possecion of a ZOMBIE silkworm? 

Silkies beginning the 3rd instar and some sad news

 

Three of our little silkworms are dead or dying.  I suspect the first was  moved from his silk pad before he could finish molting.  

The second tumbled off the brush as I was moving him to cleaner quarters.  Sigh......  I feel awful and am certain, that they are holding a trial in their little container to see if I'm guilty of wormicide.  

The final fellow is a  mystery.  He became very lethargic and took on dark brown color.  I also noticed a spot of what might be vomit on the mesh in front of him.  In the fear that it was a bacterial infection, I removed him from the group before he passed.   Everyone in his container is now in quarentine and will be watched very closely.  I am moving them to larger quarters as they finish molting and will sterilize the container before any silkies move back in.

As for the survivors, the first day hatchlings are now finishing their 2nd molt and begining their 3rd instar.  It's been fascinating to watch this process.  You can see 2 silkies below.  The one in the back has just started to molt.  He's not been in the prayer pose long.  He'll stay this way for about a day.  Then slowly slip out of his skin and look like the one in front.  Notice the guy in front looks faceless in comparison.  I think he's still waiting for his "face" to fully harden.  After crawling out of his skin, he gets back into the prayer pose and sits there a while ( maybe 1-3 hrs.)  before going off to look for food.   He is now considered to be in his 3rd instar. 



Prayer pose





Loosing his "face" (that shiny black thing hanging off his head)



I call this guy the acrobat.  He's still eating upside down, tail in the air through the mesh while everyone else is a statue.  I think he was a later hatch. 



This last picture is of the first 3 silkies to reach their 3rd instar.  They finished molting last night (day 8 for them) and recieved the honor of making the trip to school with the kids.  About 40 more finished their molt over night. 



6 Days of growth

Thought it would be neat to see what the first 6 days of growth looked like.  Since my silkies hatched out over 3 days, there is a pretty good variation of size.  Lucky for me, I seperated them into boxes by their hatchday, so I can easily compare a day 1-3, 4-6, etc.  Took these pictures yesterday.  Lots of growth for only 6 days.

  From right to left: hatchling, 1 day old and 2 day old    





6 day old, 2 -5 day olds, 4 day old.  Notice how much the day 5 silkies vary in size.  There is a variation among all of the days, which I am attributing to hatching earlier or later in the day. 

From Joy to Ick! or 5 things about Silkies that creep me out!

I suppose I must preface this by saying yes it is true I don't care much for insects.  The fliers I don't mind , but crawlers, slitherers and wigglers do tend to give me the heeby jeebies. 

 "So why on earth are you raising silk worms?"  you may ask. 

Silk fiber to spin.  I mean have you seen the price of it lately?  Sure, there is an element of overcoming a challenge that I like.  And I love being able to say "why yes, I have raised silk worms." That works into the spinning discussion of my historical impression after all.  And it is a great experience for the kids.  But the true root of it is I wants me some silk to spin and possibly reel. 

When I started this endevor, I researched, saw the pictures, and heard all the horror stories of serial killer type illnesses that can destroy an entire crop, and I knew at some point there would be an ick factor.  Still, there are a few things I just was not prepared for.  So in an effort to edify others who might try this little endevor on their own, I present the following:

those little specks are frass(poop)

5 Things about Silk Worms that CREEP me out!

1. The Smell.  Eww!  Silkies themselves don't smell.  Silkworm chow has a very herby somewhat metalic scent which while potent is not too bad on it's own.  However, if you mix that with the warm plastic styrofoam aroma of the incubator, it is just discusting. 

2. They kind of look like maggots, at least the ones that haven't molted yet.  I'm hoping as they begin to look more like caterpillars, they might become "cute".  Until then, they're just icky.

3. The molting process.  The actual shedding skin part is fine, it's what happens leading up to it that I have issues with.  It's called the prayer pose.  Imagine if you will, 100 maggot like larvae lying statue still for nearly a day with their backs arched, heads lifted toward the heavens as though awaiting orders from an unseen force. It's like a scene straight out of the 80's horror flick Prince of Darkness.  And what makes it worse is that at this point, they have very unsetteling flesh like color.  Upon the first shedding, the flesh color is replaced by a morbid grey color. Doesn't that sound nice?

4. After they molt they have no faces!  O.K., so that's a slight exageration.  In reality, you just can't see their faces.  When silkworms first hatch, their bodies are flexible and soft and their heads are a shiny black ball that doesn't stretch.  As they grow, the body can expand to a point, but not the black head or "face plate".  When they shed their skin, the face plate pops off and until the new one has a chance to harded, it is the same color as the rest of the worm making it look like it has no face.     

5. They're trying to escape!  I had read that until they start to cocoon, they would be happy in their little container, and not try to crawl out.  This morning, I awoke to the following sight.  I know it's not a massive jail break, but it's enough to "bug" me.  Forgive the pun.

The Zen of Silkworms

It's been 3 days since the first hatchlings emerged.  If I counted right, 108 hatched that first day (Sunday).  About 30 more hatched the day after, and maybe 15 more yesterday.  Right now, There are 16 eggs left and although I will give them every chance to prove me wrong, I don't think they'll make it. 

The silkworms that did hatch are all still in the incubator at about 79 F.  The humidity fluctuates, but is in the 75-80% range.  They'll stay there until they outgrow it, or are ready to cocoon.  I'm checking them 3+ times a day making sure they have food, and removing the dried up food and frass (silkworm poo).  It is amazing the quantity of poo the guys can make considering how tiny they are. 

To get an idea of just how fast these little guys grow,check out this picture I took yesterday. 

The coin is a nickle.  The silkworm on the left is 2 days old.  The one in the middle  1, and the one on the right has just hatched . Notice, their black shiny bead of a head stays the same size even though their bodies have grown.  The head won't change size until they molt.  When they shed their skin, they'll get a larger head and a looser skin that they can grow into.

This is the 2 day olds next to a pencil. 

Here they are at 3 days.

And this is my sericulturist (silkworm farmer) in training.  He's a very eager learner.

In the words of the Scarecrow from the wizard of OZ....

Oh Joy! Rapture!

At least that's how I think he put it.

It's a happy day today. Our silkworms eggs are hatching. The kids are super excited! As I write this a swarm of intsy wintsy silk moth hatchlings are leaving behind their pearly egg shells and wriggling their way onto the thread like ribbons of silk worm chow.  That‘s the green stuff around the edges of the paper.  Silk worms only eat mulberry leaves.  Since I have no mulberry tree, my silkies get to eat "chow", reconstituted powdered muberry leaves.  

The grey dots are eggs that should hatch within the next 24 hours. 

The pearly white dots are the empty egg shells.  If you look closely, you might be able to see the hole in the shell where they crawled out.
Each egg is about the size of a steel sewing pins head.  The hatched worms are about 3-4 mm long.

At the moment, our little guys are living in a little creation I like to call the Silk-O-Bator 2000.  It’s an incubator I made using a Styrofoam cooler, household thermostat, 40 watt light bulb, extension cord, duct tape, and a broken CD case for the window. It may not be pretty, but I feel pretty good about it seeing as how the house hasn’t burned down yet. 

 

Here’s the inside. There is a thermometer and a hygrometer in there to make sure the humidity and temperature stay where they should. The humidity drops when lid is opened, but there is a cup, filled with a wet paper towel, under the light bulb, so it should return to normal when the lid closes. The other clear container is for the eggs that have hatched or are close to hatching, and the blue one is for those that are clearly lagging behind.  With luck will hatch tommorrow.