PEACE SILK

 What is Peace Silk?
Depending upon your own personal viewpoint, Peace SIlk is either good or bad. Quite simply, it's the  name commonly given, across the globe, to silk produced by silkworms that have been permitted to complete their life cycle. Good, because the larvae get to turn into moths... bad, because having done so, they must break free from the silken cocoon which protected them during metamorphosis, but now imprisons them. This they do by emitting an acid which dissolves a circle of silk at one end of the cocoon..Because the silk has been wound onto the cocoon in a figure of eight, that hole will cut through every circui of silk, so reducing the single strand of silk (which could be 3 miles long!) into hundreds of short lengths. If the silk is to be saved then it must now be spun, just as sheep's fleece is spun.

A male silk moth sits on his now empty cocoon and dries his wings. Note the emergence hole positioned as it always is at the end of the cocoon. Although it looks yellow, when washed the silk from the cocoon will be pure white, it is the gum which the larva produces to build the cocoon which is coloured.

Being unable to eat (they lack mouth parts), the moths have a very short life span once they emerge. They now have but one purpose in life - to mate and lay eggs. Here two males have chosen the same female. Males beat their wings furiously to attract a female. The male is smaller, the female having a larger abdomen in which to hold her eggs. Neither male or female are able to fly.

  

Once mated the female will lay her eggs, carefully attaching each to the surface that she is on or a suitable object close by. Above, the grey eggs still contain a larva, the white ones are empty cases. The larva are about 3mm long

Net provides a surface for the larvae to live on, and allows their "frass" to pass through. Clean net is placed on top of them and covered with fresh leaves so they can climb through the net leaving any spoiled leaves and frass behind. The net can then be lifted away to move the larvae into a clean container without touching them. Silkworms are fragile creatures with very little immunity to disease or resistance to bacteria, so they are easily infected by bacteria on our hands or airbourne germs or mould spores.

When ready to cocoon the larva will look for a small place where he can easily stretch silk strands across to hold the actual cocoon in place.The more silk needed to provide secure anchorage, the less it will have left to actually spin the cocoon. If there isn't enough silk then the cocoon might be too thin to protect thedeveloping larva from insect attackor dehydration.

The strands which hold the cocoon in palce are short, but the main cocoon is spun from one continuous thread which might be 3 miles in length.  Notice that the silk "wall" is spun by the larva twisting in a figure of eight - so building the cocoon from the outside inward. This one is still being made, it has not yet reached full density.. Most silkmoths' lives are ended soon after completion of the cocoon. The cocoons are put into boiling water which kills the larva and dissolves the gum so that the thread can be unreeled. Several threads are twisted together to produce a single thread which, relative to its thickness, has a greater strength than steel wire!  If not killed then the larva will emerge as a moth about 10 days after completion of the cocoon, and the life-cycle will begin again.