Cooling it

Things are moving right along with my silkworm breeding.

Right now I have 800 eggs from three pairings. My goal is to keep them separate so when I choose my cocoons to overwinter I can choose five or six from each brood. That way I can control inbreeding to some degree. I can't eliminate it, but I can try and minimize it as best I can.

Yesterday I removed the males and females from the paper bags and put them in a container. When I opened the first bag a lot of wing scales came billowing out, so I quickly closed the bag and got the vacuum cleaner. I turned it on and kept the nozzle very close to but not in the bag so that I could open the bag and not have scales floating all over in the air. The wing scales from some moths are very irritating to the lungs, and I don't need to have breathing issues because of this project.

I made sure to keep the moths that had already bred separate from the ones that have emerged but not bred, just in case I get any more emerging. The moths are all pretty beaten up from trying to fly around in the bags and containers. This is the best looking one and big hunks of wing are missing.



After I moved the moths I cut the paper bags up so that the clumps of eggs were on small sheets of paper. Then I arranged the paper strips in the bottom of petri dishes, labeling the broods A, B, and C. I had read that you should mist the eggs every third day, so I misted them yesterday.





However, I have a problem. The eggs are due to hatch while I'm at Pennsic. I have a theory that I should be able to cool the eggs to slow down their development so that they don't hatch until I get back. At the current temperature of 80 degrees in my insectary the last batch of eggs hatched in ten days. That would put these eggs hatching on August 5th. I leave on the 4th and get back on the 9th. I need these eggs to stay eggs for five more days.

When I heard that the cocoons should not overwinter in the fridge, I went searching for a small used fridge that I could just turn up high and get it around 55 degrees. But when I was searching online I found that they make small, inexpensive wine chillers that have a digital temperature controls that you can set between 65 and 40 degrees. The bad thing about these is they don't get colder than 20 degrees below the room temp. This is not an issue for me since I don't want it much colder than that. I was able to find a small chiller on sale for $60 so I grabbed it for overwintering cocoons. However, I'll be using it much sooner than that. As in right now!

I called the USDA entomologist to confirm that I could accomplish delaying egg hatching by cooling the eggs. He agreed that it would work, and said 60 degrees should do it. So right now my eggs are in petri dishes in the chiller at 60 degrees. I think I'm going to modify the shelves so I can put the dishes on the shelf and put a pan of water on the floor of the unit. There is a fan in the chiller and I'm afraid that the eggs will dry out if I don't keep the humidity up.



I'm trying to decide what to do from here. I just need them to be delayed five days. So, do I leave them in the chiller until I get back, or leave them in for another five days and then take them out before I leave and risk them hatching while I'm gone?

I'll probably take them out before I go and leave them some branches to eat if they hatch. I'm really hoping they don't hatch until I get back. Silly worms, you have bad timing! At least they are in a stage that I can control. If they had all hatched last week I'd be in a pickle since I can't take them to Pennsic and I can't leave them alone for five days.

So far no other moths have emerged, including my two from the first generation this spring. If I have no more moths tomorrow I'm going to stick them in the freezer. I can't have them emerging with nobody to take care of them. However, I really don't think I need any more eggs. 800 will be plenty!

Moths everywhere

I've been a bit busy lately, so I've not had the time to post about all the moths that have emerged. I had two males emerge the day after the females, and both had paired by the next morning. I left them alone for 24 hours then transferred each pair into a separate brown paper bag. One pair stayed coupled while the other came apart. That was last night. This morning the coupled pair was still together, while the others were apart and the female had laid eggs.

Also last night I had two more males and another female emerge. This morning she had paired with one of the males. All of the emerged moths have been from the imported UK shipment. My two cocoons haven't done anything yet. I suspect they are males due to the size, but I'll just have to wait and see. I'll take more pictures when I get a chance.

I feel optimistic with so many pairs right now. This could be the turning point for this little project. Now I just need eggs to hatch and everything will be a go!

Two ladies

Before I went to bed tonight I checked on my bugs and found these two lovely ladies waiting for me.




Now they just need a date or two. Come on gentlemen! Lets go!

The UK bugs have arrived

Today I got my shipment of ten cocoons from the UK. I'm a little concerned that they are actually A. pernyi because the cocoons seem so much smaller than the last ones I got that were imported from China (via the UK also). These were raised in the UK so maybe something about their environment effected the size of the cocoons.

To avoid the same issue with the moths emerging and then flopping around on the floor of the emerging chamber in their meconium, I strung up the cocoons on a string inside the chamber. In medieval times they would string B. mori up like this to emerge and I have done that many times, so I hope this will work for A. pernyi too. Ideally you're supposed to hang them head facing up, but I couldn't tell which end was which so I strung them horizontally instead of vertically. I figure this would be better than hanging them upside down. They'll still be able to crawl out of the cocoon and rest on it as their wings expand.

Here they are in the chamber. The two on the far left are the two of mine that spun. The third and last worm died on Saturday. I just think he was too far behind.



While I was stringing them up one of them started to vibrate violently in my hand. It startled me, but gives me hope. It feels like one robust critter in there!

Spinner #2

My second worm began spinning late last night. I did a 10 pm check and saw that she (I hope it's a she) had dumped her gut so I knew she was going to spin. I put her in a separate container so she could spin in a smaller space. This morning I see that there is the makings of a cocoon.

Two down and one to go. I hope the last one actually makes it to spin, but it's kind of far behind in it's development. We'll just have to see I guess.

Still no bugs from the UK yet. I hope to get word that he is sending them soon!