Top side of leaves are waxy and underside matte. Notice strong veins. Scroll down for spots for trees near Topanga

Click here for Cocoons, Moths and a younger Ula

I love raising Silkworms for my kids to witness an entire lifecycle (ANIMAL) that [...]]]>

Click for Video of cup of new hatched

Top side of leaves are waxy and underside matte. Notice strong veins. Scroll down for spots for trees near Topanga

Click here for Cocoons, Moths and a younger Ula

I love raising Silkworms for my kids to witness an entire  lifecycle (ANIMAL) that lasts less than 2 months in your home.  They have also learned how to identify the Mulberry tree (Vegetable) and contrast it’s bark, leaves and shape to other trees.  But like many things of value it comes with an ethical dilemma.  Due to 5,000 years of breeding for optimum silk output, certain traits have been coincidentally bred out, including a functional mouth for the beautiful moth and wings that are too small to fly.  So after emerging from the cocoon, they have enough strength to mate and lay eggs, but no way to eat. (Ethical) And in most commercial silk production, 95% of the cocoons are boiled with the worm inside to best preserve the silk.  Animal, vegetable & ethical elements are a part of our family’s wholistic learning at home with Bombyx mori.  Btw- you can still use silk after you let the moths emerge on their own from their cocoons – this is called Peace Silk.

On a neighborhood walk  almost a month ago, both of my girls noticed the leaves on the Mulberry trees had returned.  “We can wake up our baby silkworms!”  Yes, it was time to take 350 eggs out of the tiny box in the back of our fridge where they had stayed dormant for over 9 months.  Within two weeks in a bowl in our kitchen, the silkworm eggs hatched and entered into the 2nd stage of their lifecycle.   So tiny, they could only eat the newest and tenderest leaves of the mulberry trees. You ask, why do we need 350 silkworms?  Because…

We want to give YOU two dozen of our silkworms – FREE!

If you are interested in this short-lived brush with Nature, I will have my worms for you at M&B parkdays both May 26th and June 2nd.  And I will also bring them to the W Valley Homeschooler’s parkday May 25th, 2011

Click on this image to see some AWESOME footage of a Silkworm chowing down

Lifecycle: The tiny black silkworms hatch from an egg. The larva eats mulberry (Morus alba) leaves almost constantly for 4 to 6 weeks until it is 3inches long (length of kid’s pinky finger). The white caterpillar molts its skin many times during this stage (like a snake shedding skin). The caterpillar begins to make what I call, a hammock, anchoring itself between three points by spitting silk from the glands INSIDE it’s mouth.  Once in the hammock it starts to twist and spin, all the while making more silk until an opaque white silk cocoon surrounds itself (in a process taking 2-3 days).

Now the metamorphosis can begin – hidden from the outside world.  A new exoskeleton develops between the cocoon and it’s body called a pupa. In roughly three weeks, the adult moth emerges leaving it’s pupa behind in the cocoon and wriggles out of it’s soft but sturdy white cocoon.  With out the ability to fly, it crawls about looking to mate.  After mating the female lays from 200 to 500 lemon-yellow eggs.  As long as your container is not airtight, the eggs can survive in their dormant stage in your fridge until you see the new mulberry leaves return.   We do not save all of the eggs and choose to flush the extra eggs down our toilet.  For if deposited into the trash, they will develop and in about 2-3 weeks hatch wherever they are and will starve with out tender mulberry leaves (more Ethical).

At two years of age, Esme fervently bonded to her Moths and Silkworms

Interested in enjoying this 9 week life-cycle close up? All we ask is that you bring a container to take them home and a small branch of leaves from a Mulberry tree, so we know you can identify and collect their only food.  Mulberry leaves hold alot of moisture, so no water is needed. Fortunately for us, about 30 years ago many developers  landscaped LA County neighborhoods with fruitless Chinese Mulberry due their drought resistance and speedy canopy growth.  So odds are good you have one in your neighborhood (that includes Topanga). Newly hatched silkworms can only eat the most tenderest of leaves, so I will feed your worms for a week or so before handing them off, so you don’t have to worry about that.

Caring for your Bombyx mori: I recommend glass or plastic vessels to house your worms, but I’ve seen the lid of office boxes used as well.  I recommend something a bit larger than a shoebox, so the leaves have room to breath and prevent mold from growing, the worm’s biggest threat. We use a round glass fish bowl so we can witness as much of their activities as possible.   We place egg cartons in when they are close to cocooning as that makes an easy place for them to silk up a hammock and cocoon between the walls of the sections.

Click to see the love they warrant in our home

Interestingly enough, silkworms will grow only as much as you feed them.  And though I don’t recommend it, they can go a week w/ out food. But they will become dehydrated after a few days, so we feed ours daily.  We collect leaves every 3 days and keep them fresh in a plastic bag in our fridge w/ a damp paper towel.  But you can grab 5 or 6 fresh leaves daily if you like.  After a week or so, we dispose of the bottom dried out leaves, as the worms will climb to the top for the new uneaten leaves.  Once they reach 2 inches or so in size, you will want to empty out their poop as well, which is almost completely dry.  We do it once a week.  Incidentally, their poop is collected and sold as Can Sha as Chinese medicine whose healing properties expel wind and harmonizes the stomach.  And if that isn’t all, some Chinese herbalists make teas using the Silkworms (Jiang Can) which are believed to offer a host of benefit: stopping spasms and convulsions – childhood convulsions or facial paralysis, seizures from liver-wind.   Stops pain – headache, red eyes, sore, swollen throat from loss of voice. Transforms phlegm, dissipates nodules.Stops itching.

Click on image to Watch a Moth emerge from it's Cocoon

Cocoons & Silk production: The silk that is secreted from two glands in the silkworms mouth/head takes dye better than any other natural fiber on this earth.  And one cocoon contains a single silk thread that is about 1,000 to 3,000 feet long.  In order to keep this natural spool intact, the worms are boiled before they can morph into their brown segmented pupa which is the cocoon within the cocoon where they transform into a winged moth.  Unlike the average commercial production, some harvest the silk AFTER the moths emerge from their cocoons.  As do all M&B families.  In these two videos, you will see a moth work hard to emerge and in the 2nd get a little assistance from me.  Their wings are still wet and curled.  Their dark eyes and antennae are beautifully contrasted to their soft, furry body and cream wings.

Check out Silkworm Moth Midwifery by clicking on this montage

Mating & laying eggs: I give everyone at least 2 dozen to ensure you have a more even ratio of males to females.  After almost 2 weeks of morphing inside of a cocoon, your first worms to go in will be making their debut as Moths.  Even though their body weight is too great for their wings to lift them up, the males beat their wings incessantly.  For it is a mating call.  It means, I’m hear and I’m virile!  This means you do not have to put a lid on your container of moths unless you have a house-pet who wants to do more than pet them.  Here is a video of one of my ladies laying her eggs last year.

*All photos were taken by me (except the image from Montessori school).  As are all the videos you will see if you click on any of the photos.  The following were great sources of info for my family: The Silkworm Shop’s Site and specially Sue Kayton’s History and Science questions and answers.   on‘s

The girls and I bring our worms, cocoons & moths to local Montessori schools

Click to learn how to pet a Silkworm