Raising silkworms is quite an adventure. It is a growth process that begins from the hatching of the eggs to the formation of the moth. During this growth, the worm goes through various stages in which we can give it some care that will facilitate its development and the better formation of the moth later.
Stay in this post and you can learn how to take care of them and what you must take into account so that silkworms are healthy and strong.
Hatching of eggs
The hatching of the eggs is usually in spring and is where they hatch. It is a fairly fast hatching and no intervention of any kind is necessary. Depending on the temperature of the environment, they can hatch sooner or later. If the temperatures are high, they will be able to hatch in the month of March. It is important that their hatching coincides with the presence of the leaves of the Mulberry. This is necessary so that the larvae can feed on the leaves to grow.
Although many people keep eggs in the fridge, it is not a good option. Apart from drying out, the worms are born weaker. This is done to control hatching, but it is best to let nature run itself.
Once the worms have hatched, you have to start feeding them. You can use the leaves of the white mulberry and put them to eat little by little. It is not necessary to go overboard with the amount of leaves, as they will not eat as much. Two or three mulberry leaves for each box of charcoal is enough. The box should be placed away from the sun or animals that eat insects such as birds or ants. Thus we will be protecting them. Do not laminate the cardboard box either, you have to let them breathe.
The larvae have to separate from the eggs and break the few remaining strands of silk. A trick to be able to transfer the larvae to a clean box is to place the mulberry leaf on top of the egg remains so that they can lay on top of it and eat. In this way you will find the leaves full of larvae and you can easily transport them to the clean box.
Fattening silkworms
The key in caring for these insects is to make them fat. Although at first a couple of sheets per box is more than enough, later on you will need many more. These worms are quite gluttonous and will not stop eating. The more they are eating they will get rounder and perkier.
If the worms do not grow quickly and take the typical rounded shape of these insects, it’s because you’re giving them less food than they need. To make them fat, the ideal is to replace the leaves that are becoming dry from the previous day, with other fresher ones. This will make them look more palatable so that you are encouraged to eat more.
When they are younger and newborn, they tend to eat less. Also, if the leaves are not fresh and tender, they will eat less and develop more slowly. It is important to replace the old leaves so that bacteria or fungi do not appear. We must always keep the box as clean as possible.
Growth phases
Silkworms and will go through various stages as they grow. The normal thing is that they go through many different ones and until they reach the adult phase. The first thing is to see how they gobble up all day and do not stop eating. The second phase comes when, suddenly, they stop their activity, stop eating and go to sleep.
When this phase begins they are called sleeping worms. As they molt, they start eating again. This time you can see that his mouth has a brown spot and that it is slightly larger. This will help them to eat more leaves and grow at a faster rate. The fact that they stop eating is because until the old mouth is detached, they cannot eat.
After the completion of the new molt, they begin to eat quickly again to try to shorten their life cycle as much as possible. We cannot forget that in nature they have to be as fast as possible to guarantee success.
the moth
The last stage that silkworms have are moths. When they reach maturity, they empty their intestines and lose volume. This is the reason why they darken. The mouth is no longer a brush cutter and becomes a wheel-type mouth. They are weaving the silk cocoon where they will remain for 22 days until they undergo metamorphosis.
The moth’s mouth is stunted and it cannot feed. You need to save all the fat reserves that you may have accumulated when you were a larva. The energy reserves are used to survive and mate until laying eggs again.
Mating takes place thanks to the responses that males have when releasing pheromones from females. When they detect these pheromones they go crazy and want to procreate instantly. Each moth searches for its mate and mating takes place.
There is a sexual dimorphism among mothsso that the males can be well differentiated from the females. After mating they place hundreds of eggs on the walls of the cardboard box. The eggs appear yellow and the female has to transform her abdomen into something that looks like an egg production piping bag. The reason they feed so much when young is to be able to store enough energy for mating and egg laying since they cannot eat once they are moths.
In just a few days fertile eggs will turn gray and they will remain intact until the following spring where they will hatch and the life cycle will begin again.
As you can see, it is a life cycle of eating, developing, mating and laying eggs, it is always like this. I hope that with these tips you can take good care of your silkworms.
