Sericulture

I couldn’t understand the full picture of sericulture, or raising silkworms, because of the language barrier, but I did understand the part of it that we got to see taking place at the home that we visited.

I don’t know where the people get the eggs from, or if they breed the moths and gather the eggs themselves, but when they have the silkworm caterpillars they feed them on mulberry leaves. The mulberry is cultivated all around the area – there is a field of mulberry plants for sericulture next to the SEDS farm. The leaves and the silkworms are contained in large, shallow handmade baskets and kept inside on shelves to maximise the use of the space available.

"It is ok to hold them ma'am, they are friendly worms!"

The silkworms are kept inside for 4 weeks, during which they eat as much mulberry leaf as they can, and become ready to form their cocoons. So after 4 weeks, they are taken and collected from the mulberry leaves so that they can be placed in specially-made boards that have a series of ridges, where the silkworms take up to 2 days to spin their cocoons. 

Putting the silkworms into the board

Boards full of silkworms

The cocoons they make are produced in a similar way to how a spider makes a web, with a filament produced from secretary glands. This filament is spun in one continuous fibre around and around until an egg-shaped cocoon is completed. 

Spinning their cocoons

Completed cocoons that are harvested for silk

This fibre is a strand of silk, so before the adult silkworm moth cuts open the cocoon, the cocoons are harvested. The harvesting involves plucking the cocoons from the boards, picking out any bits and pieces of grass or leaves etc that are caught in the cocoon, and then they are ready.

Sorting the cocoons and picking any bits out. I joined in with this for a little time after i took this photo.

From here, they are sold to a place in Bangalore where the next stage of processing occurs, before the silk is eventually made into sari fabric.