Monday, April 16, 2012

We have a cocoon!





We have a cocoon!  Apparently, threatening to feed them to chickens motivated the little buggers. Three more have jumped on the bandwagon.  The other 62 or so are still eating voraciously and turning their little noses up at the paper cones. Fortunately, I found a mulberry tree in a nearby neighborhood, so I should be able to feed them until they give up and go with biological imperatives.

Friday, April 13, 2012

As the worms turn (into silk, hopefully)


Well, the worms continue to grow. They are fat and juicy, several have begun to look "waxy," but show no desire to cocoon. They seem perfectly happy to just keep eating. thank goodness I have found two additional sources of mulberry leaves!  The picture above is from Sunday. The neighbors did a spectacular job feeding them while I was away and they were several times larger than before I left.  The pictures below are from this morning when I realized how much more  they have grown, the largest ones now measuring at 2.5 inches.  Some of them have gone to the expected white color, while many other seem to be retaining their stripes. I don't know if that is a varietal thing or pure contrariness on the part of the worms.