| How to Breed Silkworms Posted: 27 Jul 2021 05:00 PM PDT When we think of domesticated animals, most of us picture farm animals, or maybe horses and camels. But every silk scarf you've ever seen was made by a domesticated animal too: the tiny silkworm. Humans have been breeding these insects for silk for over 7,000 years.[1] At this point, the silkworms are so used to it that just about anyone with a warm room can look after them. This is an especially fun project for children, or anyone who wants the chance to care for an underappreciated kind of animal. [Edit]How do you get silkworm eggs? - You can order eggs online. They're available at any time of year.[2] You can order breeds with different patterns or that make different colored cocoons, but they're all raised in basically the same way.
- The eggs start out at tiny, yellow dots. By the time they get to you, they'll probably be gray-green, gray-purple, or light brown. If you see a different color, you might have eggs with a rare mutation![3]
- The silkworm is a domesticated species that doesn't exist in the wild.[4] If you see its wild relatives on mulberry trees in East Asia, leave them on the tree—they can't be bred the same way.[5]
[Edit]Where should you keep silkworm eggs? - Keep the eggs in a small container in a warm, well-lit room. A petri dish or a shoebox are common choices. The eggs will hatch fastest at around 29ºC (84ºF), but they'll eventually hatch at room temperature too.[6]
- Careful—they like a warm room, but direct sunlight is too much heat.[7]
- The eggs don't do well if they're super dry or super moist. If the room is dry, try adding a little square of damp paper to the container, but not touching the eggs. If the container is damp enough that drops form on the sides, move it somewhere drier.[8]
[Edit]How long do silkworm eggs take to hatch? - About one to three weeks depending on temperature. If the temperature is perfect (about 29ºC / 84ºF), the eggs can hatch in as little as nine days.[9] At room temperature, your eggs might take up to three weeks.[10]
- It's normal for some eggs to fail to hatch. Blue eggs that fail to hatch might be a sign that the eggs weren't handled right, so try ordering from a different supplier next time.[11] (But some blue eggs can still hatch, so don't give up them.)
- Eggs can also keep overwinter in a warm fridge. Many silkworms only reproduce once a year, and their eggs do best when they stay dormant until the next spring. If you successfully breed the silkworms, it's usually best to keep the new generation of eggs in the refrigerator until next spring. Keep the fridge temperature above 10ºC (50ºF) to avoid killing the eggs.[12]
- This temperature is higher than the standard food-safe fridge temperature, so use a separate mini-fridge
- If your silk worm breed was labeled "bivoltine," "polyvoltine," or with a number 100 or above, you could try to breed multiple generations per year, between spring and fall. Even then, the breeding schedule isn't guaranteed, since it's affected by heat and light.[13]
[Edit]What's the best place to keep silkworm larvae? - Keep them in a warm container with paper towels and holes for air. Your silkworms can live their whole lives in a shoebox about deep. Just poke plenty of holes in the lid for air, and line the container with paper towels.[14] A plastic or glass container is a bit worse than cardboard, because it's harder to get airflow and can overheat more easily.[15] Silkworms love a warm (but not hot) home: always keep them above 20ºC (68ºF), and ideally around 27ºC (81ºF).
- Newly hatched silkworm larvae are tiny squiggles. If you hatched the eggs in a petri dish, you can catch the squiggles on the end of a fine tip paintbrush to move them.[16] It's also fine to put the whole petri dish in the box.
- The larvae start out very small, so one container to start with is fine. If they start to get overcrowded as they grow, move some to a second container.
- Giving the silkworm larvae indirect sunlight during the day is nice if you can manage it. Silkworm larvae do react to light, and will feed more if they have light during the day and darkness at night.[17] That said, the silkworms won't die if you keep them in the dark.[18] Just be careful not to put the container in direct sunlight, which can overheat them.[19]
[Edit]How do you feed silkworm larvae? - Mulberry leaves are best, but not available year-round. You'll need two types of leaves. Thin, tender, young mulberry leaves are the only ones the youngest silkworms can eat. Thick, juicy, dark green leaves are better for older larvae.[20]
- If you can't get the young leaves, use artificial food and switch to mature leaves later.
- Ask the people who sell the leaves whether good-quality leaves will be in season until at least 24 days after the eggs hatch.[21] If not, it's better to use artificial food the whole time instead. Silkworms fed on mulberry leaves sometimes won't accept artificial food later.[22]
- You can order artificial food online instead. This should come with instructions that tell you how to prepare it before feeding your silkworms, and how much they eat. Food is the only way that silkworms get water, so make sure to replace it as soon as it dries out.[23]
- Wash the mulberry leaves before feeding. Leaves can carry diseases or pests. Wash them under running water, then shake dry and store them in the fridge in plastic bags.[24] (A little damp is fine, but silkworms don't want soggy leaves.) Before each feeding, throw away any yellow or dried up leaves.[25]
- It's even better to go the extra mile and disinfect them.[26] To do this, add of bleach and a drop of dishwashing detergent to of water. Soak the leaves for three minutes, then rinse them very thoroughly under running water. (Any soap left can kill the larvae.) Shake dry and store in plastic bags in the fridge.
- Start with one leaf a day, then increase as they grow. Wrap the stem of a mulberry leaf in a scrap of moist paper towel and put it in the container. Replace this at least once a day. After a few days, start putting in several leaves bunched together instead.[27] Use enough leaves (or replace them often enough) that the silkworms always have access to fresh food.
- For the first couple days, use a soft paintbrush to very gently pick up the tiny, newly hatched larvae and move them off of the old leaf, then onto the new one.[28]
- If the newly hatched larvae aren't eating, the leaves might be too thick. Try slicing them as thinly as you can and sprinkling them into the container, or switch to artificial food.[29]
[Edit]How do you clean the silkworm habitat? - Brush out the feces, old food, and skin molts every other day. Leaving it in there too long can cause mold or bacteria to grow.[30] For the first few days, when the larvae are tiny, you can use a small paintbrush or a small spoon to clean around them. Once they're larger, you can pick them up and move them to a temporary box while you clean.
- It's best to leave the larvae alone while they molt. In each molt, they rest for about a day, staying still with their head held up before shedding their skin.[31] Let them snooze and come back to clean tomorrow!
- Don't wash with water and especially not soap, which can kill the larvae. The life cycle is only a few weeks long, so you can wait until they're in cocoons before you do a thorough clean.
[Edit]How do you get the silkworms to cocoon? - Put in sections of toilet paper roll when the larvae turn translucent. Silkworm larvae usually molt four times, then spend a final six or seven days feeding before they're ready to make a cocoon. Their bodies then turn a little translucent, and they stop eating. When they roam around and keep raising their heads up, they are looking for a place to spin cocoons.[32] Help them out with a cardboard toilet paper roll cut into circles, or move them into rolled-up paper towels or newspaper and twist the ends closed.[33]
- If some of the silkworms have already started to spin silk, leave those ones alone. Interrupting the spinning can kill them.[34]
- The transformation into moths takes 8 to 14 days. This doesn't include the two or three days it takes to finish spinning the cocoon.[35] Leave the cocoons undisturbed to give the silkworms the best chance to turn into healthy adults.
- After two or three days of spinning, the silkworm inside spends another two or three days pupating. After this point, you can cut open the end of a cocoon with a razor blade, and gently pull out the pupa (for instance, to show them to a science class). If you are very careful and return the pupa to the cocoon, it can still become a moth.[36]
- The moths usually come out in the early morning, so start waking up early if you want to be there when it happens.[37]
[Edit]How do silkworms mate? - Silkworms mate as adult moths, right out of the cocoon. You can tell the sexes apart by their size (females are larger) and behavior (males move faster and flutter their wings more).[38] While mating, they face away from each other and join the ends of their bodies.[39] After mating, the female lays hundreds of eggs.[40]
[Edit]Do I need to look after the silkworm moths? - The moths don't need food or any other care. Adult moths can't eat and only live for between 3 and 10 days.[41] All that's left to do is appreciate them while they're still around.
- Silkworm moths can't fly, so you can take off the lid to look at them without much risk of them escaping.[42]
[Edit]Can I cross-breed different types of silkworms? - Yes, you can cross-breed to make new strains. Silkworms of different strains will mate with each other, and their children might look different or make different sizes or colors of cocoons. Keep in mind that cross-breeding silkworms for a specific purpose (like larger cocoons or healthier larvae) takes a lot of training and experience.[43]
- If you want to experiment, it's usually more consistent to cross-breed in spring. If you can, separate the sexes so you can combine the males of one strain with the females of another. (The male larvae are usually bigger and can have different markings, but it's hard to tell in some strains.[44])
- If you're raising a lot of silkworms, you can use a big tub with a removable mesh floor. Most of the silkworms will stay above the mesh (where the food is), so you can take the whole mesh out to get easy access for cleaning.
- If there are water droplets on the sides of your container, poke more air holes or move them somewhere with more air flow. Bad ventilation can cause a mold or bacteria infection.
- Silkworms go through cycles of feeding and molting, so don't worry if they start eating less.[45]
[Edit]Warnings - Soap can kill the larvae. If you clean a container to use as a habitat, wash it a second time thoroughly with plain water.[46]
- Most places have legal restrictions when it comes to throwing away non-native species, even dead ones. One way to deal with dead eggs, larvae, and moths is to freeze them thoroughly, then throw them away inside a sealed plastic bag.[47] But it's best to check local laws, especially if you are raising silkworms for a school or other institution.
[Edit]Things You'll Need - Silkworm eggs
- Tender, young mulberry leaves (or artificial silkworm food)
- Mature, thick mulberry leaves (or artificial silkworm food)
- A fine-tipped paintbrush (for moving young larvae)
- A shoebox or similar container
- A second, temporary box (to store larvae while cleaning their main habitat)
- A warm location away from direct sunlight
- Cardboard toilet paper rolls, newspaper rolls, branches, or other surfaces to spin cocoons on
- Fridge
- Sealable plastic bag
[Edit]Related wikiHows [Edit]References |
| How to Get White Clothes White Again Posted: 27 Jul 2021 09:00 AM PDT Even with the most intensive laundering routines, keeping white clothes white forever can be nearly impossible. Thankfully, though, there are a few tricks you can try to help brighten your white clothes back to their original shade again after they have gotten soiled and tainted. [Edit]Special Pre-Treatment Soaks - Soak in baking soda.[1] Combine 4 quarts (4 L) warm water with 1 cup (250 ml) baking soda in a sink or basin, mixing well until the baking soda dissolves. Soak your dingy white clothes in this solution, making sure that each garment is submerged. Let it soak for about 8 hours.
- Baking soda deodorizes while it whitens, so this option has multiple benefits. Moreover, it has also been known to help soften hard water, so your clothes will not be exposed quite as much to hard water with staining mineral deposits if they soak in this solution.
- Dissolve five 325-mg aspirin tablets in 2 gallons (8 L) of hot water. Soak the white clothing in this solution for 8 hours or so. Make sure that the material stays submerged throughout the process.
- To speed the process up, you may want to crush the aspirin before you stir it into the water. Doing so can help make the aspiring dissolve faster by exposing more of its granules directly to the water.
- You could also toss a couple of aspirin directly into the washing machine as you wash your clothes, but pre-soaking with aspirin is the recommended option of the two.
- Treat with toothpaste.[2] Combine a full 6.4 oz (189.3 ml) tube of baking soda and peroxide whitening toothpaste with 1/2 cup (125 ml) baking powder, 1/4 cup (60 ml) salt, and 2 cups (500 ml) white vinegar. Whisk well until the mixture begins to rise. Soak an old, dingy white garment in this mixture for 3 to 4 hours and rinse with cool water.
- For best results, use toothpaste that comes in a paste form rather than a gel form. The toothpaste should also contain baking soda.
- Pre-soak in detergent. Combine 1/4 cup (60 ml) laundry detergent or dishwasher detergent with a sink full of water. Submerge your white clothes in this solution and let them soak for 2 hours.
- Shampoo can be used instead of laundry detergent or dishwasher detergent, but if you use it, try to pick a clear and fragrance-free shampoo. The dye from tinted shampoo could stain a white garment and the fragrance oils could do likewise.
- Soak the garment in lemon juice. Fill a large stockpot with water and add the slices of one or two lemons. Bring the contents to a boil over high heat. Turn off the heat, then add your whites, and allow them to soak for an hour in the lemon water.
- Make sure that the lemons are cut into slices rather than halves. You want as much of the lemon flesh to be exposed as possible since more of the juice from the inner membranes can seep into the water that way.
[Edit]Special Pre-Treatment for Stains - Try fabric rust remover. Dampen the stain with lukewarm water. Apply fabric rust remover to the stain, using enough to actually soak into the fabric. Scrub the area with a toothbrush to work the product into the fibers more thoroughly, then let it sit for 5 minutes or less. Rinse out the stain remover with lukewarm water.
- This option works especially well on armpit stains. The stains in this area are usually caused by a reaction between sweat and antiperspirant deodorant, and the nasty yellow tint that results is caused by aluminum rather than sweat alone. Rust stain remover takes care of these aluminum-based stains.
- Apply lemon juice.[3] Dab a little lemon juice onto the stain and scrub at it with an old toothbrush for a couple of minutes. Allow the liquid to sit for another 5 to 10 minutes before rinsing.
- Note that you can also do this with distilled white vinegar.
- The acids in both vinegar and lemon juice are mild enough to work without damaging fabrics but harsh enough to dissolve soil and residue left by alkaline substances.
- Rub stains out with salt. As soon as you spill something dark onto a white garment, rub a little salt into the stain. The salt can absorb the moisture from the stain and lift away some of the dye while it is still in its liquid state.
- This treatment only works when the stain is still wet and fresh. It will not help much on dry, set stains.
- Use commercial stain treatment. There are many different commercial stain treatments nowadays. You can buy one in the store to treat stains, but make sure you choose one that is safe for the type of material you plan to use it with, and always follow the usage instructions on the label.
[Edit]Special Laundry Boosters - Add vinegar to the rinse cycle. Add 1 cup (250 ml) of white vinegar to the washing machine just before it enters its rinse cycle. Do this when you are washing a load of all-white laundry for best results.
- Wash with baking soda. Pour 1 cup (250 ml) of baking soda directly into the washing machine basin with a load of white clothes. Run the cycle as usual.
- Do not pour the baking soda into a separate detergent dispenser.
- Alternatively, use washing soda instead of baking soda. The two products are similar, but washing soda has a lower pH, making it safer to use on clothes.
- Throw Borax into the washing machine.[4] Sprinkle 1/2 cup (125 ml) of Borax over a load of white clothes in the washing machine. Pour it directly into the basin portion with the clothes and run the cycle as normal.
- You should not add the Borax to a separate detergent dispenser.
- Borax is similar to baking soda in the way that it whitens and deodorizes.
- Use bleach. If you are only washing white clothes, add a capful of bleach to the load when you plan to wash it. If you are concerned about the powerful effects of standard bleach, try a non-chlorine bleach or a slow-acting bleach, like a 3-percent peroxide solution.[5]
- If you have hard water with a high iron content, do not use chlorine bleach. Chlorine and iron can actually cause your whites to take on a yellow tint. Use oxygen bleach, instead.
- Try a commercial color remover.[6] For particularly dingy whites, you can try mixing in a capful of a commercial color run remover product. These products are available in the laundry aisle of many grocery stores. Add them to the wash cycle as instructed on the label.
[Edit]Basic Laundering Process - Choose your add-ons. Ask yourself which pre-treatments and laundry boosters you want to use. Apply any pre-treatments ahead of time and add any laundry boosters to the washing machine as your prepare to wash your white clothes.
- Wash whites separately. Launder your white clothes in the hottest water you can use without damaging the material, and only wash white garments with other white items. You should also wash excessively soiled white garments separately from those that are less dirtied.
- Water is most effective at removing soil at a minimum temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius).
- While it is true that warm water can set certain stains, for white clothes that have already been laundered several times and have lost their brightness little by little, any color change has already been set into the fibers. As such, you need to treat the dinginess as soil and use hot water instead of cold.
- Use detergent in the washing machine cycle no matter which pre-treatments or laundry boosters you decide to add. A detergent with special enzymes may work best, and you should use the maximum amount recommended on the bottle's label for maximum efficiency.
- Note that if you have hard water, you might need to use larger amounts of detergent. You may also need to install a water softener in your house so that the water entering your washing machine is less harsh on your clothes.
- If your water is high in iron, you should use an iron-removing product during your washing cycle.
- Dry in the sun. Sunlight has a natural bleaching effect, so allowing your clothes to hang dry in the sun can dry and whiten them simultaneously.
- If you are unable to dry your clothes in the sun due to the weather, where you live, or for any other reason, you can still dry your white clothing in a dryer. You will not receive the bleaching benefits of natural sunlight, but the dryer should not do any real damage to the clothing, either, as long as the fabric is dryer-safe.
[Edit]Things You'll Need - Water
- Clean toothbrush
- Sink, stockpot, or small tub
- Baking soda
- Aspirin
- Whitening toothpaste
- Detergent
- Lemon juice
- Fabric rust remover
- Salt
- Commercial stain treatment
- Vinegar
- Borax
- Bleach
- Commercial color remover
[Edit]References [Edit]Quick Summary |
| How to Keep Hydrangeas Small Posted: 27 Jul 2021 01:00 AM PDT Hydrangeas are beautiful flowering shrubs that add pops of color to any garden, but they grow really fast and can easily get out of hand. If your hydrangeas are getting a little unruly, there are a few things you can do to help control their size. We'll go over some basic pruning tips and move on to a few other options to manage your hydrangeas so they continue growing healthy! [Edit]Get rid of any unwanted stems. - Cut back any stems that are intrusive or in the way. If your hydrangeas are getting too unruly and blocking walkways or other plants, you can get rid of any stems causing problems. Take a sharp pair of loppers and follow the stem all the way back to the base of the plant. Cut anywhere along the stem and get rid of the branch so it's no longer in the way.[1]
- You'll lose some of the blooms whenever you cut back hydrangeas during the growing season, so the shrub may not look as full as it normally does.
- Cutting during the growing season always promotes new growth, so your hydrangeas will grow back to the same size and require regular maintenance.
[Edit]Prune old wood bloomers in late summer. - Thin out some of the old stems after your hydrangeas finish blooming. Hydrangea varieties like Mophead, Big Leaf, Lacecap, and Oakleaf all grow on the woody stems from the previous growing seasons. Right after the flowers bloom and fade in the summer, use hand pruners or loppers to cut stems that look weak or broken down to the ground. Only remove up to ⅓ of the old stems so your hydrangea blooms well in the next year.[2]
- Avoid pruning the stems later in the fall or winter on these varieties since you'll remove the developing buds and get rid of next year's blooms.
[Edit]Trim new wood bloomers in the fall. - You can cut down all of the growth on these hydrangea varieties. PeeGee and Annabelle hydrangeas only bloom from wood that grows in the current season and come back every year. Once the blooms die out and fade, take your pruners and cut all of the stems down to the ground. That way, your hydrangeas will completely regrow and you can manage their size a bit better.[3]
- You can leave around of the stems coming up from the ground to add support for the next season's growth.
- Your hydrangeas will develop weaker stems after each time you cut them down to the ground, so you may need to tie the stems to bamboo or wooden stakes as your plants get older for additional support.
[Edit]Pinch the tips of the stems. - Keep new hydrangeas from branching with this quick trick. After you prune your hydrangeas, wait for the stems to grow about . Pinch the tip of the new growth tightly between your fingers to prevent it from growing any longer. If the buds below the pinched tip start branching out to new stems, pinch them as well.[4]
- You probably won't see many flowers or blooms during the first or second growing season when you're pinching tips.
- Pinching the tips helps your hydrangeas develop a stronger base so blooms are more full during future growing seasons.
[Edit]Apply less fertilizer. - Too much fertilizer makes your hydrangeas bigger but with fewer blooms. If your hydrangeas are already in rich soil, they don't need fertilizer to promote new growth.[5] Run a soil test in the growing area to check the nutrient levels of the soil before adding any fertilizer. Usually, just adding organic matter, bark, and peat moss can help enrich your soil enough for hydrangeas to grow healthy without getting oversized.[6]
- If you do need to add fertilizer, use a balanced time-released mix once or twice a year.
- If your hydrangeas have yellowing leaves near the middle of the plant, then apply a fast-acting fertilizer.
[Edit]Spray them with growth retardant. - These chemicals slow down how fast your hydrangeas grow. Get a growth retardant like B-Nine or PP 333 from your local gardening center. Follow the mixing directions on the package and put the solution into a spray bottle. Mist the leaves of your hydrangea with the growth retardant when there are 4–5 pairs of open leaves. Wait another 2 weeks before spraying your hydrangeas again to keep them from growing too fast.[7]
- Growth retardants contain chemicals naturally found in plants that prevent branching and form buds.[8]
- Your hydrangeas will still grow to their full size eventually, but it will take longer for them to develop fully.
[Edit]Divide the roots. - Separate and kill the stems you don't want to keep anymore. Decide which hydrangea stems you want to keep and what stems you want to get rid of. Push a sharp spade through the base of the plant where you want to separate it and sever the roots, also known as rhizomes. From there, you can either prune the stems you don't want or apply a vegetation killer to get rid of them.[9]
- Make sure you completely cut through the roots before applying a vegetation killer, or else you could kill the part of your hydrangeas you want to keep.
[Edit]Grow hydrangeas in containers. - Hydrangeas won't be able to spread out as much if they're in pots. Choose a big container that's around wide and fill it with fresh potting mix.[10] Dig a hole that's the same size as the hydrangea's roots and place it inside the pot. Water the soil until you see it drip out of the pot's drainage holes to help establish your hydrangeas.[11]
- You'll still need to trim and prune your hydrangeas when they're in pots to help control their size.
[Edit]Plant a smaller variety of hydrangeas. - Dwarf varieties don't spread out as much as the standard shrubs. Even though many hydrangeas grow to over tall, there are a few compact species that are easier to manage. Look for Pee Wee, Little Lamb, Tardiva, or White Moth hydrangeas since they're all smaller and you won't have to worry about them getting too large and unruly.[12]
- Dwarf hydrangeas look great when you keep them in pots.
- Research the final size of any hydrangeas you want so you can plant them somewhere where they have enough space to grow.
[Edit]Warnings - Hydrangeas will always regrow back to their original sizes, so stay vigilant about pruning and cutting them down to keep them in the shape you want.[13]
- Be careful not to over-prune hydrangeas while they're growing since they won't flower as much.[14]
[Edit]References |
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