Silk Worms throughout the House

Remember how we visited the silk worm auction outside of Bangalore? Well it was one of my favorite things to see on our trip because it was so interesting. The farmers brought in bags and bags of silk worms in their silk cocoons.


Here is one cocoon that they cut open for us to see--the little worm is still wriggling around. The little piece of dirt that's stuck to his head is his waste.

At the silk worm auction there were two separate kinds of silk worms: the whiter, smaller cocoons are the Chinese variety (see the cocoon on the left) and the larger, yellower cocoons are the Indian variety (see the cocoon on the right). The Chinese are worth more because not only are they valued for their lack of color but because there is more silk--the Indian cocoons have about 800-1000 meters of silk wrapped around and around in one continuous strand and the Chinese have up to 1600 meters. The yellow cocoon looks as if it has more silk but for some reason the smaller Chinese cocoon is just packed more tightly.


The farmers gave me several cocoons as souvenirs and they're about my favorite thing that I brought home from the trip (but then I've always had a weakness for natural souvenirs like pine cones and acorns and sea shells). They're rather sticky--almost like Velcro--as their strands cling to each other but they're also slightly shimmery. It kind of makes you wonder who it was that first had the idea to take one of these guys and harvest its tiny piece of string.

Two of the cocoons I froze overnight in the freezer to kill the little worms. I know it's brutal but they were doomed anyway and I figured it was kinder than letting them hatch in a frigid Arctic environment. Once they're sold at auction they're thrown into vats of hot water where the secretions that hold the strands in place are loosened and the individual thread of silk can be gathered and wrapped up for use.

Another cocoon we cut open to show the kids what was inside. By that time the little worm was half-way metamorphosed into a moth which is what you see in the picture above. I'm afraid he didn't make it either.

One little cocoon went with Lillian to show and tell at school and then the last cocoon I stuck in a bowl and left on my bedroom shelf just to see what would happen. When I got up Monday morning this is what I saw:


It's wings were still wet and eventually dripped spots of tan color all over the bowl as they dried but we now have one bona fide silk moth in the house.

I'm not sure what to do with him, the chances of survival in an Alaskan April are pretty slim--we don't have too many mulberry trees up here--but I can't bear to kill it so I stuck it in a butterfly cage with a dish of sugar water to see if we could get it to eat but so far it's just sat on its cocoon and cried. I think it misses India too.

Sponsored by Dimples and Dandelions for Serena and Lily baby bedding.