How to Raise Silkworm Pupae? An Analysis of Breeding Methods and Key Technical Points

After a silkworm spins silk and forms a cocoon, it becomes a silkworm pupa. Many people are at a loss when faced with silkworm pupae and do not know how to handle them. So how should silkworm pupae be raised?

1. How to raise silkworm pupae

Prepare a silkworm room, silkworm tools and mulberry leaves, and thoroughly disinfect the silkworm tools and silkworm room. In spring and summer, pour the silkworm eggs onto paper to collect the newly hatched silkworms, then feed them 2-3 meals of fresh tender small leaves each day, and keep the temperature at around 27 degrees. When they grow to the 2nd instar, lower the temperature appropriately, feed them 2-3 meals of mulberry leaves each day, and manage moisture and diseases well. When they grow to the 4th instar, the silkworms begin to spin cocoons, and after peeling the cocoon open, you get the silkworm pupae.

2. Do silkworm moths need to be fed

Silkworm moths do not need to be fed. After the female moth emerges from the cocoon, it releases a scent from its tail to attract the male moth to mate. The male moth dies after mating, and after mating the female moth chooses a place to lay about 500 eggs and then slowly dies.

3. Distinguishing and storing silkworm eggs

There are three situations when silkworm moths lay eggs.

Those that turn brown or a darker color in two or three days are diapause eggs that will hatch next year; those that do not change color for several days, or turn pink or red and then show blue dots at about 8 days and afterward hatch newly hatched silkworms, are non-diapause eggs; those that never change color and then shrivel are unfertilized eggs, that is, dead eggs.

The storage of diapause eggs is divided into room-temperature storage and cold storage. The cold storage method is, after 10 days from egg laying, once it is confirmed that the silkworm eggs have turned a dark color and entered diapause, place the silkworm eggs in a refrigerator at 5 degrees Celsius for cold storage. Note that the silkworm eggs must be kept dry, with no water droplets appearing; they must also not be placed in the cooling position, to prevent freezing.

Silkworm pupae do not need to be raised; you only need to leave them in one place after the silkworms form cocoons, and after the adults become moths they will come out on their own and follow their instincts to produce offspring. Friends who raise silkworms, be sure to wait patiently.