serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: June 2008
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Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Sunday, June 29, 2008. My largest worm has begun to spin. Here is how he (or she) looks next to the smallest worm. And here is a short movie of the big one munching away a few days ago. Hopefully the other two will start in a few days, even though I really think the little one needs some more time to grow before he spins. I'm still waiting to hear form him though. Labels: a. pernyi. I was g...
serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: September 2008
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Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Tuesday, September 23, 2008. I've been meaning to write about this for awhile, but I just haven't had the chance. Here is a picture of my weeping mulberry. A few weeks ago it was beautiful, completely leafed and full. Then one night the deer came by our yard and almost stripped it. I'm very glad that I didn't have any B. mori. Labels: a. pernyi. Posted by Serena @ 7:44 PM. Right now I've go...
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Serena's Bug Journal: August 2008
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Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Thursday, August 28, 2008. No dead bugs this morning! They are all fat, happy and eating like pigs. I think having more space agrees with them. Posted by Serena @ 11:54 AM. Wednesday, August 27, 2008. Out of the woods? But the bugs seem happy and are staying alive, so I think we're on the upswing. Labels: a. pernyi. Posted by Serena @ 9:08 PM. Tuesday, August 26, 2008. Labels: a. pernyi.
serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: April 2008
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Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Wednesday, April 30, 2008. I had two more females emerge last night. I got a video of one as it was emerging. Commentary provided by my four year old daughter, Lily. In case you can't understand her, she said "Lady, don't step in the poop! This project might not be as successful as I once thought. Labels: a. pernyi. Posted by Serena @ 7:06 PM. Monday, April 28, 2008. This is a shot of her a...
serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: May 2008
http://serenasbugs.blogspot.com/2008_05_01_archive.html
Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Friday, May 23, 2008. Although I started out with ten little worms, I'm now down to four. The ones who have died all seemed to slow in growth, then just die. Thankfully none of them had nasty symptoms of a disease, they just seemed to peeter out and fall over dead. This is possibly the result of them being inbred, which I highly suspect. Labels: a. pernyi. Posted by Serena @ 2:36 PM. This i...
serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: April 2007
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Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Saturday, April 7, 2007. Before the insect room construction. After a slight basement water problem (. Go here for the whole story. We're finally ready to start construction on the insect room. Here is how it looks right now -. I also need to construct an emergence chamber for the moths. As per the terms of my permit to import these special Chinese moths, USDA. Posted by Serena @ 7:46 PM.
serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: July 2008
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Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Thursday, July 31, 2008. Things are moving right along with my silkworm breeding. Right now I have 800 eggs from three pairings. My goal is to keep them separate so when I choose my cocoons to overwinter I can choose five or six from each brood. That way I can control inbreeding to some degree. I can't eliminate it, but I can try and minimize it as best I can. I'm trying to decide what to d...
serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: June 2007
http://serenasbugs.blogspot.com/2007_06_01_archive.html
Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Thursday, June 7, 2007. Yet another setback in my plans to have a silkworm colony this summer. This is a picture of my mulberry sapling that we planted last spring. It appears to be alive, but I can't really be sure. It's not all dry and brittle, so I'm assuming it's not completely dead. Why didn't it leaf? Can get really bushy and still stay short. Another bonus is that the. Serena’s...
serenasbugs.blogspot.com
Serena's Bug Journal: December 2006
http://serenasbugs.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_archive.html
Adventures in medieval silkworm rearing, with emphasis on the joy of the insects rather than the silk they produce. Saturday, December 30, 2006. I love bugs. I think they're really cool. Sure, spiders creep me out a little (but they're technically not bugs). Anyway, just for fun, I did a lot of research into the medieval methods of raising silkworms, and then tried my hand at it. I was able to successfully rear the domesticated silkmoth,. It occured to me that at one time. Or the chinese oak silkmoth.