Silk Worms

We finally decided to raise silkworms as a science project.  This is a typical homeschool project.  The only difficulty is in finding mulberry leaves to feed them because that is all they will eat. That problem was solved when a new friend mentioned that she had a mulberry tree.    

We got the silkworm eggs somewhere around the beginning of April.  When they arrived, they were about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.  They took a while to hatch and then I was afraid I killed them because I didn't have leaves in the when they hatched.  But I put in some leaves and apparently the timing was OK, because they lived. 

They started eating the leaves - very little at first.  They didn't even eat all the way through them.  The leaves looked lace after they ate them.  It was really cool.  Then they started eating more and more.  Now they are incredibly voracious.  They eat hands full of leaves each day.  And, they are incredibly ugly.  Yuck!  I don't know how much longer we have to wait for them to spin their silk cocoon, but I hope it's soon.

Arianah loves to hold any small animal.  Silkworms included.