Silkworm Journal I

This summer has been a summer of pets. If we agree that chicken could count as pets, I had been at least pets-free for many, many years. When I visited Yi earlier in August, her two daughters (very cute and lovely girls) showed me shoeboxes full of little white silkworms and cocoons from an earlier batch. Claudia and Danica were very fond of them. They went fetching mulberry leaves regularly. Danica, who was only 4 and a half, posed for my camera with a silkworm on her forehead. When Yi suggested that I take some silkworms and keep them in my lab, I had some hesitation as whether lab people will like them, and whether I could find enough mulberry leaves for them. Yi offered me all the mulberry leaves they had in their refrigerator and also took me to their neighborhood mulberry tree and picked enough leaves for many worms (seemed then). To increase the chance that I get at least a male and a female (there is no physical difference between the worms), she gave me four of them, thus making that probability 7/8.

The following is the correspondence between me and Yi regarding silkworms:

Subject: Silkworm Big Hit!
Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 17:27:38 -0400

Yi,

The silkworms are the biggest hit in my lab this year! Everybody goes and watches them several times a day, and Steve said that they were more entertaining than ants (which we used to have as lab pets for two seasons). We googled and figured out that they go through 4 molts to cocoons and so far, the four of them already molted once in our lab! It was really fun watching them walking out of their old skin. It was just like taking off some clothes! Thanks for giving them to me. Also the big supply of the leaves. One labmate found a mulberry tree on her way to T station. So I think we are fine for this season.

Please say Thank you to Claudia and Danica, too.

Date: Aug 10, 2005 11:24 AM
Subject: RE: Silkworm Big Hit!

Nice to hear they are the entertainers for you hard working scientists.
Just a few things in case you don't know. Don't feed them wet leaves. Wipe water off. Before they start spinning cocoons, it is better to put them where they can find corners. Claudia found that the best place for each one of them was the cylinder of tissue or paper towel, Place the cylinder vertically after they start spinning so their pee will come done. By doing so, you will have the best, whitest and highest quality silk! Usually they stay in cocoons for two weeks before the moths come out. Then everything goes as you know--looking for its soul mate, marriage and the rest of the story.


Have fun!

-Yi


Date: Aug 13, 2005 10:30 PM

Yi,

The worms have been eating like crazy. Yesterday morning I weighted them. They were about 2.1g each. This afternoon they each weighted about 3.1g! How the hell could they gain 50% body weight in one day! Totally amazing! They are almost 3 inches long now. How are the worms in your home doing?

My boss found this website the first day I took the worms in.

http://www.wormspit.com/bombyxsilkworms.htm

And I have just checked out other stuff and it is very interesting.

http://www.wormspit.com/index.htm

Take care!


From: Yi
Date: Aug 17, 2005 1:47 PM

Half of my wormies are in cocoons. Yesterday evening, Bob and I spent almost the whole evening watching them spinning and weaving. They are incredible creatures. Unfortunately, a lot of the eggs, if not all, are yellowish which, according to your web site, indicated they were infertilized :-(. I guess it was due to the uneven distribution of genders. So I am waiting for the rest of them. I have six died but still have more than ten left either in cacoon or still are growing and eating as monsters.

Have fun!



Date: Aug 17, 2005 2:52 PM

Yi,

My worms started spinning last night, too! Since I labeled my worms, we could keep track of them. Worm No. 1 was only 3.5gm, but started spinning first. Worm No. 2 was 4.5gm and is just starting right now. Worms No. 3 and 4 are about 4.2gm each and are not ready yet. They are still eating. Everyone was marveled at No. 1 because he made a cocoon just overnight! Oh, No. 2 just peed and pooped! That's some disgusting poop!


From: Yi
Date: Aug 18, 2005 10:41 AM

What a gang of scientific geeks! You weighed and labeled silkworms???


TO BE CONTINUED