Step Six: To Moth or Not? That is the Question...

this may seem cruel however think about this...

WHEN THEY COME OUT OF THE COCOON AS A MOTH THEY HAVE NO MOUTH SO THEY CANT EAT!!! PRETTY MUCH YOU HAVE TO DECIDE IF YOU WANT 300-1000 EGGS PER FEMALE MOTH AND THEN WATCH HER SLOWLY DIE FOR 2 WEEKS OR…COOK THE COCOONS

we placed our lovely little cocoons on a cookie sheet with wax paper on it.then we covered each cocoon with a cup (Dixie actually worked better verse the Styrofoam we used) make sure to poke holes in the top so they can breath. the males will do anything to get to a female so the holes are easier for them while the one with the opening is easier for dealing with females so you can see what she is doing.

They may have wings but they are vestigial

This is Adam our fist moth

Silk Moths mating

- adult moths produce pheromones to attract each other, when nervous or startled they spray them so be careful, I didn't find the smell offensive but it did have a slight smell, I think I was more grossed out by them spraying than anything else
-you can see the difference between male and female moths, as far as size is concerned, the same is true for their wings

-Moths have no mouths and can live for 10-15 days before dying, there sole purpose at this point is to mate

- one male can fertilize 3-5 females

Step Seven: Now You Have a Bunch of Dead Moths and Hundreds of Tiny Eggs!

Great! You have helped your silk worms complete a life cycle! The female moth will start laying eggs almost immediately after the male has finished his role in the reproductive cycle. The eggs start off as a cream color, but over the next week or so darken. That's when you know they are fertilized and ready for storage.

you can store them in a plastic baggy in the door of your refrigerator for several months once they have changed color

- It takes around 10-15 days for the moths to die, this was my least favorite aspect of this process, they don't do anything except crawl around on the inside of the cup but even that slows down as the days tick on.

A Cocoon Unraveled

Unfortunately I don't have anything to unwind the cocoons other than my own two hands, I had read that the cocoons unwind easily and I figured...what the heck we'll unwind one by hand

3 hrs LATER...

It took 3 hrs to unravel a cocoon

 silkworms produce silk via two protein based liquids that harden when they are exposed to air, one is the silk the fibrin and the other the sticky glue called sericin. A cocoon is produced in one single strand making it possible to unwind an entire cocoon as a single stand

Inside the cocoon we found that they larvae had transformed into a early stage moth (so you see both the casting and the dead body in the above picture) the other part is the "cradle" which houses the silkworm within the cocoon

I cant say that I actually measured the silk myself as I unraveled it but I have read that a single strand can be 1200-1900 ft long!

a factory in China where cocoons are being unraveled

You need to slightly boil the cocoons to dissolve the sericin that is keeping the silk strands in the cocoon

 The one cocoon was all that I unraveled but the people who run this website wormspit have unraveled many and can explain the process WAY better than me if you are interested

 silk reeling