What are the precautions for raising silkworms in summer and autumn
Silkworm raising in our country has a culture and history of several thousand years, so our country can be considered a major country with rich experience in silkworm raising, and the precautions needed in each season and each stage of silkworm raising are different. Therefore, breeders should first understand the living habits of silkworms.
Precautions for raising silkworms in summer and autumn
1. Prevent pesticide poisoning. During the silkworm raising season, do not spray organic chlorine pesticides such as bisultap on farmland near the silkworm room, as their fumigation effect will cause silkworm poisoning; mulberry leaves fed to silkworms must be confirmed non-toxic through trial feeding before leaves can be picked to feed the silkworms.
2. Mosquito coils or mosquito and insect killers are prohibited in the silkworm room. If used in houses adjacent to the silkworm room, the doors and windows of the silkworm room must also be closed to prevent silkworm poisoning.
3. The silkworm room should be fitted with screen doors and screen windows to prevent flies from entering the silkworm room and harming the silkworms, and add “silkworm fly killer” emulsion or spray it on the silkworm body to kill fly maggots.
4. Before raising silkworms, block rat holes, keep a certain distance between the silkworm racks and the walls, and scatter lime powder or silkworm medicine around the feet of the silkworm racks to prevent rats from climbing up. For raising silkworms on the ground, do a good job of rodent control with medicine.
5. Summer and autumn silkworm raising has higher temperatures, so doors and windows should be opened to strengthen indoor ventilation and air exchange. Spraying mulberry leaves with clean water and using an electric fan to blow a gentle breeze indoors also helps to cool the room.
6. Diseased silkworms found should be removed promptly and put into a disinfection basin containing bleaching powder solution or lime slurry; diseased silkworms are prohibited from being fed to livestock and poultry to prevent the spread of pathogens and contamination of the environment.
7. Silkworm droppings contain a large amount of pathogens, so do not spread them out to dry around the silkworm room; they should be concentrated in the wild for composting or put into a manure pit for composting to prevent the spread of pathogens.
8. Summer and autumn high temperatures cause pathogens to reproduce quickly, so attention should be paid to picking leaves as needed, transporting leaves promptly, and storing leaves reasonably. The mulberry storage pond should be disinfected once at each instar, and do not feed overnight mulberry leaves.
9. In hot and humid weather, avoid feeding wet leaves; do not sprinkle water on stored mulberry leaves; remove droppings frequently and scatter more fresh lime powder, dry straw and other materials to inhibit the breeding and reproduction of pathogens.
10. Outside the silkworm raising season, do not store grain, bran and other items in the silkworm room, to avoid moisture producing mites that harm the silkworms during silkworm raising.
Preparation work before raising silkworms
1. Planting mulberry: silkworms feed on mulberry leaves, so mulberry trees must be planted well before raising silkworms. For the planting techniques of mulberry trees, please read the article "Mulberry Tree Planting Technique Video"; the editor will not repeat them here.
2. Silkworm room: raising one batch of silkworms requires a large silkworm room of 20 sq m, a small silkworm room of 10 sq m, a dedicated leaf storage room, etc., to help prevent disease.
3. Silkworm tools: including thermometers, silkworm trays, plastic film, silkworm nets, square cluster frames, silkworm chopsticks, goose feathers, mulberry cutting knives, chopping boards, mulberry scissors, black cloth, etc. Raising one batch of silkworms requires 16-20 silkworm trays, 160-200 square cluster frames, and 14 small silkworm nets.
4. Disinfection of the silkworm room and silkworm tools: 7 days before raising silkworms, after cleaning the silkworm room and silkworm tools, spray and disinfect with disinfectant essence or 1% bleaching powder or strong chlorine essence liquid, using half a jin of medicinal liquid per sq m. After spraying, close doors and windows and seal for more than 24 hours; at the same time, the surrounding environment of the silkworm room should also be sprayed for disinfection.
Why do silkworms molt
During the growth and development of silkworms, the skin cannot grow along with the body; when body growth is restricted, they must molt. Silkworm babies live on mulberry leaves, and after continuously eating mulberry leaves their bodies turn white; after a period of time they begin to molt, and molting takes about one day, during which they do not eat or move, as if sleeping. After one molt they become second-instar larvae; each molt counts as adding one year of age, and larvae molt a total of four times to become fifth-instar larvae, then eat mulberry leaves for 8 days to become mature silkworms and begin spinning silk and forming cocoons.
What types of silkworms are there
1. Mulberry silkworm: the mulberry silkworm feeds on mulberry leaves; its cocoon can be reeled into silk, and the silk is a precious textile raw material, mainly used for weaving silk fabrics, and also widely used in military industry, communications and electronics, etc.; the pupae, moths and silkworm droppings can also be comprehensively utilized.
2. Tussah silkworm: the tussah silkworm is named for liking to eat oak leaves; its cocoon can be reeled into silk, mainly used for weaving tussah silk, and the pupae can be eaten and used as medicinal material; it occurs twice a year, adults appear from April to June, and it overwinters as pupae inside the cocoon.
3. Tian silkworm: the Tian silkworm is a silk-spinning insect of the family Saturniidae in the order Lepidoptera, and is a very rare species in nature; the Tian silkworm silk it produces is priceless and is called a green soft gemstone surpassing gold.
4. Camphor silkworm: the camphor silkworm is a wild silk-spinning insect of the family Saturniidae in the order Lepidoptera; its silk can be made into silkworm gut and high-quality fishing line, and it is mostly found in Guangdong, Taiwan, China, Guangxi, Fujian, Hunan and other places in our country.
5. Chestnut silkworm: the chestnut silkworm is an economic insect that mainly feeds on walnut leaves and chestnut leaves and spins silk to form cocoons; it is widely distributed in Japan, the "Three Norths" and central-south regions of our country, and chestnut silkworm silk is an expensive natural fiber.
6. Ailanthus silkworm: the ailanthus silkworm is an economic insect that mainly feeds on ailanthus leaves (tree of heaven) and also feeds on the leaves of Chinese tallow, castor, holly, Michelia figo, paulownia, phoenix tree, camphor and others, and spins silk to form cocoons; it belongs to the family Saturniidae in the order Lepidoptera, and is distributed in China, Japan, India and other countries.
7. Willow silkworm: the willow silkworm mainly feeds on the leaves of Chinese wingnut, Fontanesia fortunei, Chinese tallow, camptotheca, apple, pear and others; it is a silk-spinning insect, and a high-quality cocoon can be drawn into 300 m of silk, which has the advantages of being fine and rot-resistant, and is mainly distributed in East Asia and Southeast Asia.
8. Tiger silkworm: the tiger silkworm is a type of mulberry silkworm; during the larval stage the silkworm body has black-and-white alternating stripes, and in the moth stage it is not very different from ordinary white mulberry silkworms; during the larval stage it likes to eat plants of the mulberry family, especially mulberry leaves, and the silkworm cocoon is an important raw material for the textile industry.
There are also many types of silkworms, and different types of silkworms have different growth habits, so breeders should understand the living habits of various silkworms and give different breeding methods for different silkworms.