Anyone use silkworms?

[nasty bugger]

Went to the mesa reptile show today. Saw some silkworm 'colonies' for sale. They seem expensive for a po boy like me but I was wondering if they contribute anything that the mantis doesn't normally already get in their diet.

Roach colony of dubia for 30 mostly adults for $25, which I thought was a bit pricey.

Poison dart frog people had springtales for sale. Didn't look like much, and they were about $11 for a half deli cup of soil and peat with some springtales. I will say that seeing those poison dart frogs makes me want to raise some of them. They are very colorful, and being the manly man that I am it's a bit hard to say, they were so cute B) :lol: I bought the book on how to raise them, and the breeders there that wrote that book are locals, so I may be a poison dart frog person sooner than I'd ever imagined

 

[hibiscusmile]

Yea, I have been thinking about having them too, they are Cute for sure.!

 

[kamakiri]

I haven't yet, but I did get some free (w/ bulk order) from my cricket supplier. I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[hibiscusmile]

ok, breeding superworms right now and it is going sweet, if I member I will take pic of the morphing tomorrrow.

 

[kamakiri]

So far, the limbata mantises do not seem to be interested in the silkworms...

 

[nasty bugger]

I put some meal worms in with a couple mantis' and I haven't seen them since, but that doesn't mean they aren't in the substrate, or melted or something. It's been really high temps here.

My turtles and mice love the meal worms !

The silk worms are more than I wanted to pay, so If I got some I'd have to buy in bulk, and my mantis' are almost ready for release, so why bother, in my case.

I could try them on the mice and turtles though, but the ooths I hatch would have too small of mantis' for the silkworms.

 

[kamakiri]

Well, at least one of the silkworms that I've used was half eaten this morning...

If I didn't get them for free, I'd be a little dissapointed. I guess their movement isn't as interesting as crickets...

 

[kamakiri]

Last night I tried again to serve silkworms. About half were taken with some encouragement. The most effective technique seemed to be 'flying' the worms on their threads around the mantises. Fun, but more work than I care for. Ones that were just left in the enclosures are generally untouched. And boy, are those things juicy! Lots to clean up after for each of the worms eaten.

 

[Katnapper]

Hmmm.... everything combined, sounds like that's why they haven't hit the "top feeders" list! :lol: Thanks for the info.