A Way-Too-Late Silkworm Diary
Posted: 2025-09-16
In third grade we all had to keep a box of silkworms for Science class.
We'd buy it at those small stores they like to open near schools, selling drinks, snacks, ice cream, and of course silkworm boxes. Now that I think about it, how did the baby worms survive the shelf? Most of these stores are removed now because parents don't like their kids eating junk food. I wonder how they get their worms now. Over the internet?
But anyways, it was this thin cardboard box that open on the top, not unlike the Marine Boy fish snacks (called "a lot of fish" in China). At first they were just tiny, ugly babies, shorter than the horizontal length of my current fingernail, looking like fried maggots, and really boring. But you keep feeding them mulberry leaves and they would grow. My uncle used to pick a sack of them from nearby trees for me while he was at work, which can last for a couple weeks.
They went through the leaves fairly quickly. Many of them died as babies, but eight survived into big worms. They turned big, fat, white, and greedy. Now that I describe it like that they were not unlike a cartoonish depiction of a capitalist. Some other kids' silkworms were colorful, and while I don't really know the specifics, I know they were dyed with some pigments to appeal to kids more. All of mine were white though. They were about the thickness of my current pinky finger.
This was the part where we had the most fun too. We would take them out of the box and let them climb on our hands and desks. We would try getting them to shit on other people's desks. We'd compare whose silkworm was the longest and the fattest. Teachers had yelled at us to keep the box in our drawers. No fewer than one silkworm met unnatural deaths due to us throwing them around. All eight of mine were fine though.
Then they spawned cocoons. Two of mine were yellow for some reason, and I was so surprised, considering they were all white and I'm pretty sure I got normal worms and not dyed ones. The cocoons made them too large for the box, so I moved them to a metal mooncake box, leaving the lid open for air.
And that was when the rats came.
They knew what was good for them alright. All these nights my worms were right out there in the open they never came. Now they became chrysalises and the rats knew they could eat that. Three disappeared on the first night. I moved the box to my room, but three more disappeared the second night. The two cocoons left was one white and one yellow. I really wanted to keep them safe and see what differences are in the moths from different colored cocoons. Wanting to shut the lid tight but fearing the chrysalises would suffocate, I kept a tiny slit open, but sure enough, the last two were gone in the morning. Can chrysalises even suffocate? It's too late to find out.
I went to school the next day empty-handed. Some of my classmates already had moths. One started laying eggs on this kid's desk and the teacher ordered her to wipe it clean.