Silkworms at 48.9N 8.2E
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Monday
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Over the weekend we had a big party and I had to drive my son to the airport. (He is visiting Renate.) So I did not have time to get feeding for the worms. Conseqently they went without food for almost two days. I had turned their heating off and they did not wander off to search for food. Today I got some and see how they went at it: |
 | With certain browers you might hear now the sound that they make while eating. If not, here is a link to a mp3 file. The sound that insiders call rain it very well audible now, especially when they get fresh food. |
Tuesday
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The animation above was put together from 13 images that where taken over a time of 36 minutes. For a large versions see: avi file (1.9 mb) or animated gif file (2.9 mb)
A closer look at the images reveals a big problem: Mold was growing on the droppings of the worms. I guess that is because ventilation is poor in plastic boxes. I will do more fequent cleaning. |
Wednesday
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With a few more trees accessible I have access to ample food now. Yesterday I collected 2300g and have used up almost a kilogram already. The first worms went through fourth molt, being now in there final worm state, in 5th instar. One of those weighs 1,3 g, double what the average 4th instar weighs. So growth continues to be amazing. Compare the leftover shells of 3rd and 4th molt! And see how big the biggest are, compared to our latecomer. |
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May 19-23 2005 day 20-24
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Tuesday
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All they do these days is eating. They are up to 2kg of leaves a day, the largest weigh 5g. I know now what to do with the cocoons and how to make fly fishing leaders out of silkworm silk glands. All from a guy across the big pond that did a silkworm blog last year. Check it out here. |
Wednesday
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Yesterdays movie does not seem to come up reliably in the way I had anticiapted, too many browser differences. Here is a link directly to the .avi file. From the wormspit webpage I came to this internet group called CatHerder (cat as is caterpillar). All guys that raise moths. It is just mind-boggeling how much there is to learn from them. Fortunately I only found them now and not before I had set up this website. I probably would never have started, thinking there is nothing new to contribute. Anyway, here I am and I will continue.
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Thursday, Friday
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Above are my worms on Thursday plus food for less than one day! See the square at the bottom of the image? It is 40cm (16inches) long!
It is a real chore now to bring in the food, to clean the boxes and create the space for mounting. I knew since weeks that this time would come and still have not been prepared with mounting space. Just a few weeks ago I through out 50 or so egg boxes. Now I try differnt things. I will report on this later. |
Saturday to Monday
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Over the weekend and Monday spinning continued. I tried different things to give them space for mounting. Temperatures are extreme, pretty hot over the weekend, pretty cool on Monday. The worms give off a lot of liquid now, so the lower humidity is just what they need. I let the leaves wilt before I feed them. |
Tuesday
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For the next part click here! |
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| Questions, suggestions? Just E-mail! |