silk worms

[ajandj]

I just tried Yoda (bearded dragon) on some silk worms and he loves them. I only had about a dozen and he wolfed them down and looked at me as if to sya "more please".
My question is how hard are they to breed and are mulberry leaves the only thing they eat.
I rang the nursery and they sell mulberry trees but l don't have room here for a tree. Can you buy the leaves online somewhere?

 

[Dragonwolf]

Hi ajandj,

Not hard to breed at all but it's a cyclic event. Silkworms that are available now would be hatched from eggs laid last season and stored over Winter. And unfortunately mulberry leaves are all they eat.
I have some here from a project last year - we received the tiny (2mm) silkworms and kept them in a tub refreshing the leaves each day (we have a mulberry tree so sourcing the food wasn't an issue). At the end of that cycle they spin the silk cacoons and a few weeks later hatch out as silkmoths. The moths are too heavy to fly and are only interested in mating and laying eggs, which they stick to any available surface (so we put in egg cartons). Once the eggs are layed the moths die and the eggs stay suspended until the new season.
I think it's possible to buy the eggs online - sourcing the leaves would be the hardest part.

PS, my beardies went mental for silkworms too...

 

[lilmissrazz]

Silkworms are really good for beardies so I'm
Told Mine love the moths too!! Hahaha you can buy leaves online mate but I can't remember which site lol
Actually all my lizards n my frog Love em!!

 

[yeah1526]

can they eat the moths too?

 

[dihsmaj]

I'm getting some Silkworms from Amazing Amazon (if they have any), and some Mulberry leaves (once again, if they have any).

 

[Matt74]

Yeah, can't see why they couldn't consume the moths aswell, but why not hold the moths back from becoming food and see if you can get them to breed!

Sorry in advance for hijacking this thread but can anyone tell me how many (a day on average) mulberry leaves you would need to feed 100 silkworms?

 

[The_Dreaded_Pets]

my parrents have a massive mulberry tree so last season i hijacked the leaves from there im told there easy as to breed and will be buying 50-100 this comeing week to try and get some breeding for myself this yr so next season i wont have to buy any.

I have also seen soewhere on the net people selling silkworm food not sure exactly what this comprises of however im guessing it would just be mulberry leave flakes or something however you really need a good supply fom a tree as they have UNSTOPPABLE appitites and need cleaning out aswell as fresh food every day every 2nd day at the lest

 

[Notorious_Guf]

Silkworms are great, I've used them for a few years, but only in smaller quantities. The Mulberry Leaves/Trees are the hardest part of keeping them, they are so hard to find. I am yet to find a source of trees substantial enough to care for a large quantity of worms.

If anyone knows of some Mulberry trees around the Penrith NSW area, please let me know. I'm told there were some in Tench reserve, near the river,but I can't find them and Tench reserve is huge.

 

[Matt74]

So, I take it from the responses, you need access to a mulberry tree or your going to struggle to keep them fed, a couple of bags from amazing amazon isn't gonna cut it?

Then again, I guess for me, it also depends on how long it takes a juvenile frill neck lizard to eat it's way through 100 silkworms!...

 

[Jen]

You can get mulberry trees that you can keep in pots, if you only want them for the leaves get the white variety. You will probably need 2 or 3 small ones to be able to feed the worms. I was feeding a huge amount of leaves twice daily, lickily we have 3 grown trees back home. Toward the time that the worms are going to spin cocoons they eat a ridiculous amount. (I am after eggs too, the perth based company looks to be closed down and the prices people want for eggs is stupid - sadly i moved to Perth and left my eggs in the fridge back home....5 years ago. None of them ( 6 large sheets of paper totally covered) have hatched as they dessicated)

 

[scuttsaay]

I have silkworms, and I stole my mulberry leaves from the local primary school. The leaves should be topped up so often, but I found that keeping 20 or 30 leaves in a air-tight snap-lock bag kept them fresh for much, much longer.
Also, make sure when you put new leaves in that you don't directly drop them on top of the silkworms, as they suffocate very easily.

 

[leamos]

Apprently mulberry leaves freeze quite well too, haven't tried it myself but they are quite low in moisture so I don't see why it wouldn't work

 

[ajandj]

Holy Cow!! These little buggers can grown. Someone said that they are eating machines and i didn't really realise how much so...
We have silkworms at kinder for the kids to watch and learn from. They have like 3 boxes, so that's when l was given a dozen or so to try with yoda.
Anyway, 1 week later and those damn silkworms have doubles if not triples in size. They are huge... i'm so glad that l have really thought about it before purchasing these guys.
I know that buying leaves off the net isn't going to be practical or cost effective either, so l am definately putting this in the "maybe later" basket when l can find a constant source of fresh leave,

 

[killimike]

I only recently found out that people buy small packets of mulberry leaves from pet shops for their silkworms! I don't know how much they end up paying to feed just a few silkworms, but at the phenomenal rate they eat...

Raid local trees, and if you are breeding them, you will be surprised at how many eggs you get. Progressive culling is the way to go, because from just a couple of moths, you will have thousands of silkworms. Not so bad when they are tiny black dots, but when they are 10cm long, they will go through kilos of leaves. Ah the joys...

 

[-Katana-]

I wonder how well the silkworms freeze and then thaw so you got some to feed the lizards during the winter months.

 

[killimike]

I wonder how well the silkworms freeze and then thaw so you got some to feed the lizards during the winter months.

I will try it and see! Someone has probably tried it. I would guess the result would be pretty mushy tho

 

[Chris1]

if you drop the worms in boiling water first tehy should freeze better,...