When do silk worms form cocoons?
31853875#15
When the worms have grown enough, they are put in baskets. From there, they will spin their cocoons in five days and will produce about three hundreds meters of silk each. The cocoons are then put in sunlight to avoid them undergoing their metamorphosis into mature moths. However, 20% of them reach the breeding process and the female moths will lay and hatch its eggs within nine to twelve days.
The cocoons are soaked in hot water in order to soften the sericin (also known as silk gum) which coat the fibres and stick the cocoons together. Silk threads are then unwound and reeled together to produce a single thread. Weavers at Angkor Silk Farm make both raw silk and fine silk that do not have the same texture at all. Sericin has not been completely removed from raw silk threads, which will give a rougher texture to the fabric at the end.
Artisans Angkor
51510#58
Silk moths lay eggs on specially prepared paper. The eggs hatch and the caterpillars (silkworms) are fed fresh mulberry leaves. After about 35 days and 4 moltings, the caterpillars are 10,000 times heavier than when hatched and are ready to begin spinning a cocoon. A straw frame is placed over the tray of caterpillars, and each caterpillar begins spinning a cocoon by moving its head in a pattern. Two glands produce liquid silk and force it through openings in the head called spinnerets. Liquid silk is coated in sericin, a water-soluble protective gum, and solidifies on contact with the air. Within 2–3 days, the caterpillar spins about 1 mile of filament and is completely encased in a cocoon. The silk farmers then heat the cocoons to kill them, leaving some to metamorphose into moths to breed the next generation of caterpillars. Harvested cocoons are then soaked in boiling water to soften the sericin holding the silk fibers together in a cocoon shape. The fibers are then unwound to produce a continuous thread. Since a single thread is too fine and fragile for commercial use, anywhere from three to ten strands are spun together to form a single thread of silk.
Silk
31834472#0
Demineralizing has the potential to be used in the silk sector enabling wet reeling of Wild Silk moth cocoons by removing the mineral layer present in these cocoons. This technique is not like degumming where the gum of the fibroin fibres is removed what would lead to a tangled cocoon. With "demineralizing" the gum and structure of the cocoon is kept intact enabling the cocoons to be wet reeled. This could allow a new silk industry in areas which have not the conditions or infrastructure for raising the domesticated silk worm "Bombyx mori", possibly generating a revolutionary new income stream and alleviating poverty
Demineralizing (silk worm cocoon)
10783723#5
The writings of Confucius and Chinese tradition recount that, in about 3000 BC, a silk worm's cocoon fell into the tea cup of the empress Leizu. Wishing to extract it from her drink, the 14-year-old girl began to unroll the thread of the cocoon.
History of silk
31834472#1
An aqueous 1 M solution of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) is used adjusted to pH 10 with saturated sodium hydroxide solution. The cocoons are immersed in this solution for 72 h at 40 °C and gently stirred. During the process, the cocoons are kept under the surface of the solution by means of a plastic mesh, using a partial vacuum to encourage penetration of the solution. Afterwards, the cocoons are thoroughly washed with running tap water (three times 3 h) and subsequently reeled in tap water at room temperature using the standard method for "Bombyx mori". The method described here forms the basis of a patent application.
Demineralizing (silk worm cocoon)
990054#1
Silk comes from the cocoons of the silkworm, which feeds off mulberry trees in subtropical climates. When the cocoon is boiled, the hard cocoon becomes a loose ball of strong, flexible filament measuring over 1,000 meters. Usually, this ball is uncoiled and wrapped on a spindle for use in the textile industry. Silk is used for making everything from clothing to rugs. During silk comforter production, however, the silk filament is not unraveled, but rather stretched into a flat tangled web and layered to form silk floss, which will fill the comforter.
Silk comforter
25173571#1
In order to kill the silkworms, the cocoons are dried in the sun. A variation of the process exists in which the silkworms are allowed to leave before the cocoons are soaked in boiling water to soften the silk and then reeled. Single-shelled, oval-shaped cocoons are collected and then boiled to extract the silk yarn. Boiling is a very important part in the manufacturing of silk, as it softens the cocoon and makes the extraction of silk easier. In conventional sericulture, the cocoons are boiled with the larvae still inside; however, if the cocoons are boiled after the larvae have left them, the silk made is then called "non-violent silk" or "Ahimsa silk". In China, the silks are given different names when silkworms are reared on different plants, as the diet of the silkworms has an effect on the quality of the silk. For example, silk from larvae on the wild mulberry is called "zhe", while those on the oak "Quercus dentata" produce "hu".
Tussar silk
50255263#1
Kusuma Rajaiah, a government officer from India's Andhra Pradesh state, applied the theories behind the ahimsa way of life to the making of silk and found that it was possible to create silk without killing the creatures that created it. Traditional silk manufacturing methods involve boiling the cocoons of the silkworm and then sorting out the threads to be used later in production. Rajaiah's idea involves a gentler method, specifically letting the worms hatch and then using the cocoons once vacant. He started deploying this process in 1992 and has hence been supported by a larger community of people interested in the welfare and rights of animals and non-humans.
Ahimsa silk
904706#9
Most larvae spin a silken cocoon in the leaves of a preferred host plant or in leaf litter on the ground, or crevices in rocks and logs. While only moderately close relatives to the silkworm ("Bombyx mori") among the Lepidoptera, the cocoons of most larger saturniids can be gathered and used to make silk fabric. However, larvae of some species – typically Ceratocampinae, like the regal moth ("Citheronia regalis") and the imperial moth ("Eacles imperialis"), burrow and pupate in a small chamber beneath the soil. This is common in the Ceratocampinae and Hemileucinae. Unlike most silk moths, those that pupate underground do not use much silk in the construction. Once enclosed in the cocoon, the caterpillar sheds the larval skin and becomes a pupa, and the pupa undergoes metamorphosis for about 14 days, at which point it either emerges or goes into diapause. During metamorphosis, respiratory systems will stay intact, the digestive system will dissolve, and reproductive organs will take form.
Saturniidae
11047945#9
The production of Thai silk begins with the "Bombyx mori", a small silk worm that comes from the eggs of a silk moth. For their first year, these worms feast on the leaves of mulberry trees before building a cocoon with their spittle.
Thai silk