The animals we call "silkworms" are actually caterpillars or the larvae of several types of moth, the most common of which is the Bombyx mori, native to China. Silkworms have special salivary glands that produce a clear fluid that hardens and becomes silk once it is exposed to air. Technically, silk is dried spit!
Silkworms spin this spit into cocoons that protect them while they transform into adult moths. A single thread of spit is about 914 meters long. However, very few silkworms are allowed to complete their metamorphosis. When the moths eat their way through the cocoon, the thread is broken and rendered useless for humans. To keep the silk thread intact, silk producers bake the cocoons or drop them into vats of boiling water in order to kill the insects inside. Just enough moths are spared to breed the next generation of silkworms. Approximately 3,000 silkworms are killed in order to produce just one pound of silk.
The military and medical communities are experimenting with silkworms and spiders in order to make sutures and fishing line, either by breeding the insects themselves or inserting their genes into other animals, such as goats. Silkworm pupae are cooked and sold as snack food in Korea and China.
Humane alternatives to silk include nylon, polyester, Tencel, milkweed seed-pod fibers, silk-cotton tree filaments, and rayon. Ahimsa silk, produced in India by Designer Weaves, is made from the cocoons of caterpillars who have already completed the moth stage and flown away
Silkworms spin this spit into cocoons that protect them while they transform into adult moths. A single thread of spit is about 914 meters long. However, very few silkworms are allowed to complete their metamorphosis. When the moths eat their way through the cocoon, the thread is broken and rendered useless for humans. To keep the silk thread intact, silk producers bake the cocoons or drop them into vats of boiling water in order to kill the insects inside. Just enough moths are spared to breed the next generation of silkworms. Approximately 3,000 silkworms are killed in order to produce just one pound of silk.
The military and medical communities are experimenting with silkworms and spiders in order to make sutures and fishing line, either by breeding the insects themselves or inserting their genes into other animals, such as goats. Silkworm pupae are cooked and sold as snack food in Korea and China.
Humane alternatives to silk include nylon, polyester, Tencel, milkweed seed-pod fibers, silk-cotton tree filaments, and rayon. Ahimsa silk, produced in India by Designer Weaves, is made from the cocoons of caterpillars who have already completed the moth stage and flown away