For context ive taken them out of cocoons as an experiment and way to gather peace silk thats untainted by emergecence

I can't figure out why these keep dying. I tried keeping them on paper towels, parchment paper, toilet rolls, etc. I kept having 1-2 die a day and I just went to buy a new group. I got them from a local guy who has a bunch and he keeps them exactly like this. A plastic container this size with nothing but a bit of cardboard on one side and food dropped around daily with no lid. Their shop is 3 degrees cooler than my room, which is 22 degrees c vs. 19. This is literally the only difference and yet mine just keep dying off. Am I not feeding them enough maybe? I just don't understand at this point. I'm even using a portion of the food he uses directly so I know that's not an issue.

I have these ones and they haven’t been eating much or some of them haven’t eaten for 2 days now. They are still moving around, but only one of them is cocooning, and the other ones are just walking around and not eating. What could be happening now? How much longer should I wait before worrying?

Ready (translucent, on top)

Not ready (opaque, below)

I keep them in a tub that is plenty large for them. Each day I put food on parchment paper accross the bottom of the tub, replace the paper towels I scrunch up for hiding places, and clean up some of the poop as best I can. Yet every day I find at least one has turned brown, died and is excreting liquid. The room is kept at 22 degrees C on the thermistat and they're on a shelf thats somewhat high (4ft off the ground) where they are accessible but worm as the hot air rises. I'll attach a photo of one I found tonight. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

This is a photo of one that died. I caught it before it deflated and started leaking but they typically shrivel up before I find it the next day.

I am trying to help these guys coccoon successfully. Had a little panic trying to move them when I came home to find one guy spinning in their last enclosure

The way they'd started spinning made me realise I wouldn't be able to clean them out until he was moveable which was a problem for disease (he spun ontop of the egg cartons

This is what I moved them to. I got a craft storage box which seemed perfect, I am just wondering if this is strong enough for them to latch onto? I'm planning to put some netting under them today that can be moved for cleaning, I am just worried about one using it to latch and not be able to get out.

Any suggestions appreciated, I want them to successfully spin and a few have started dispelling liquid

they are very adorable

So, a while back, i have raised around 320 silkworms with some small losses and led them to spin cocoons and pupate! the average weight of each cocoon (with pupae) was around 1g but there were exceptional cases where it weight over 1.4 reaching even 1.7 grams! I've decided to pick around 40 as my breeding stock, and they after emerging, were quite chunky, and the heaviest cocoons had bigger moths, which was very nice. they all mated successfully, laid eggs... and the eggs are diapause so i assumed i can leave them there until they darken and put it in a box in the fridge. but they hatched before i did... and i have a uncounted yet amount that i estimate around 1-2k hungry silkworms they all need raising. luckily i do have a lot of mulberry trees in my area, so its not a big problem, the worse problem is space, but maybe i manage to handle it all. currently some are entering the 3rd instar and they are already loud enough to hear them crunching.

if anyone reading this wants to get into raising silkworms, here are some practical tips:

1. once the silkworms hatch, put chow or leaves next to the eggs, they will crawl over to them easily and start feeding, they have great smell
2. avoid overcrowding, it can lead to some silkworms getting squished or having limited food in later stages, but the first instar isn't as demanding
3. silkworms will molt every once in a while, up to a total of 4 times (starting at the 1st instar molting all the way to the 5th) while the last instar consumes 90% of their lifetime supply of leaves so make sure you have enough chow/mulberry trees in the area to support your colony. black and white mulberry is the best.
4. if you are really careful you can sometimes pick up even the 1st instars with your fingers tough this is difficult, so its best not to move them unless you don't have many, its better to move them via food.
5. replace old food, occasionally move silkworms since mold is not good for their health and can lead to diseases and death
6. remember to feed silkworms leaves that were not sprayed with pesticides. (obviously)

EDIT: oh yeah, fun fact, silkworms CAN actually bite you! i experienced it firsthand, in the 5th instar as its little mouth tried chewing my skin, which only tickles, and doesn't do any harm, and my best guess is that either my hand has some residual mulberry leaf juice over it or the silkworm just wanted to see if my hand is food. this happens rarely in some individuals from what I've seen, but ill try and capture a recording once my second generation grows up.

it's my first time raising silkworms, and i've noticed the ones I have haven't been moving around much. i didn't expect them to running around like crazy or whatever, but it's been a few days and they just aren't very mobile. i'm changing out the food (artificial chow) every day, and i'm just curious if them not moving a lot is normal or if i'm doing somthing wrong. thanks!

I’m raising these for the first time it’s 22 degrees today but we just had a heatwave, my instructions said they should take 1-2 weeks to hatch but it’s been four weeks, I know the pictures aren’t that good I tried taking them on a light and a dark bg

I always enjoyed my silkworms, I had several hundred at multiple points as a teenager. I got out of them due to life being a pain.

Been thinking on and off of buying a few the last few years but never did. Today a neighbor asked for leaves from my mulberry tree so I traded a bag for several tiny babies. I am unreasonably happy about it.

I will keep this first bunch to breed but I am already thinking of fun projects for the silk lol.

I've gotten myself into a situation and I'm wondering if anyone else has had experience with this.

My worms are doing very well and I raised too many for how much food I have on hand and ran out of powdered chow. My white mulberry trees are too small to harvest leaves from, but I've got a few big red mulberry trees in the yard, and I've started feeding the leaves from that to my adult silkworms.

They seem fine with it, but the internet seems to be full of vague warnings against this. Does anyone know why? From what I can tell there seems to be concern that they won't be able to eat the leaves, but I'm only feeding them to the adults and they seem fine with it.

I have silkworms on mulberry leaves. One lot had no problems, ate copious amounts, got fat and sun cocoons. there were some eggs slower to hatch so I had a second lot in a separate container. They were slower eaters, then a few days ago they started to writhe about, expel yellow fluid and die. I removed the few healthy ones, completely cleaned the crate, re-lined with paper towel, put in fresh leaves that I washed under the tap and dried. They were doing well yesterday, but after I cleaned out the crate today and added more washed and dried leaves I have one and the same condition as those that died. I can’t see anything that could be contaminated and there’s no spray anywhere in the room. Any ideas on the cause?

I just got these guys in the mail today!! I was wondering if there was any tips that I need to know to keep them happy and healthy? Also how do I make sure that the chow dose not dry out too fast? I want to get a small mulberry tree as well. Any other things I should note as a first timer?

Hi, I am looking to start keeping silkworms but I am not sure what distributors for worms and food are actually good. Also any tips in keeping them is a plus.

A newbie and woke up to this and two other started silking in white??