anyone in here raise silkworms?

My mom does this every year in order to show her 3rd grade class how metamorphosis takes place and it's so freaking simple.

order the eggs, place them in a deli cup with some mulberry leaves, the eggs attach themselves, transplant the leaves to a larger enclosure with more mulberry leaves, eggs hatch, worms eat the leaves for a long time (don't remember the exact amount of time), worms spin cocoons, worms leave cocoons as moths that can't fly, and then the moths die eventually in a short period of time after they hatch. (naturally of course)

iam working on a caresheet for Wax worms.. they make a kinda silk too

i've never heard of raising wax worms, but that's cool!

its pretty easy and you get alot of them, just takes a good amout of time and patince.. but you get really big fat worms and really many of them

I raise silkworms....not THAT easy. I'm thinking I'm gonna get a mulberry tree because I hate having to make the stupid food for them.

how is raising silkworms not that easy? you put them in a cardboard box with mulberry and they grow and turn into moths. pretty simple.

The fact that they are VERY prone to disease. YOu cant keep them in a cardboard box. Plastic is the way to go to avoid mold and bacteria. You also cant touch them without washing your hand. THey eat A LOT of food. And Mulberry doesn't come by that cheap.

Lori had to raise them for a lab she used to work in, and she said it was a pain in the butt mixing all the food media for them -- the BugZoo used to but they had the problem getting a hold of enough mulberry as well.

You can buy premade food but its more expensive and having to cook it...well if you mess up then your silkworms die.

~Abyss~ wrote:

The fact that they are VERY prone to disease. YOu cant keep them in a cardboard box. Plastic is the way to go to avoid mold and bacteria. You also cant touch them without washing your hand. THey eat A LOT of food. And Mulberry doesn't come by that cheap.

never had the mold issue with the cardboard, BUT i refuse to hold them for that fact alone.

I've raised crickets, roaches, and silkworms..
Roaches, easiest by far.
Crickets, Kinda easy but...no thanks.
Silkworms a bit difficult but I guess it's worth it since I mostly fed them to my beardies.