There are silkworms starving to death in shoeboxes across the Territory every year. Carers, eager to give their children an experience from their own childhood, purchase silkworms from pet shops, school fetes and even from the internet, in the hopes that little Johnny and little Janey will be enriched from the encounter.
Unfortunately, we don’t always think these decisions through. Silkworm food cannot (yet) be thrown into the trolley with the oven fries and the soymilk! We actually have to hunt and gather to keep our creepy little friends alive, and it is daily occurrance for up to two months. Many a pair of pantyhose has been laddered in an unladylike scramble over a fence, resorting to leaf-theft in the desperate attempt to avoid the heart-wrenching moment when little JJ cries ”..but Mummy, you killed my pets!”
Is it possible for someone, somewhere, to host a list of Mulberry tree locations, both publicly and privately owned? Surely the knock-on effect would be worth it: less mental illness and stress in our community, less wriggling pets being sacrificed to baby magpies, less guilt-generated presents being purchased just weeks before Christmas.. the list is endless.
Let’s try to salvage this once common-place joy from one’s childhood and make mulberry tree locations, around our capital, public knowledge!
PS: If anyone has a tree in the Gungahlin or Belconnen areas, please let me know!
[Ed] Does anyone actually buy silkworms as pets?
Google Maps mashup anyone?
Never heard of anyone keeping Silkworms as pets. The couple of pet stores I’ve been to in the ACT weren’t selling them, either.
Anyway, the http://www.abc.net.au/creaturefeatures/facts/silkworms.htm ABC (and Bourke’s Backyard) inform me that lettuce leaves will do for feed – unless you’re after good silk, in which case grow your own damn Mulberry trees!
I could tell you, but then I would have no free mulberries to eat when I walk the dog in mulberry seasons…
I hope the original post will help Canberrans think their decisions through in the future.
I used to collect leaves for silkworms when I was kid from a street in Deakin that was lined with mulberry trees, unfortunately I can’t remember exactly which street.
I also remember getting leaves from mulberry trees at Weston Park, somewhere between Prescott Lane and the next carpark to the north.
A bit vague I know, but it was a long time ago…
There is also a book that lists the trees planted on various streets that might be a little more useful.
“Street Trees in Canberra”. A H Edwards. ANU Press 1979
Available for $8.95 at the National Library.
http://shop.nla.gov.au/product_info.php?products_id=11640
Save yourself some time and effort and order some blocks of food from Mulburry Farms in the USA …. so much easier (you can buy eggs from there too). Once they have eaten leaves though, they won’t switch to purchased food … they need to start on it from hatching.
There’s a mulberry tree at Curtin PS.
Used to do a roaring trade when I was in primary school whenever the silkworm craze went on, since we had the only mulberry tree for miles around in our backyard.
If you get stuck with too many silkworms let me know. My bearded dragons love them
http://londoncityairport.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/curious_canned_-goods_silkworm_pupae.jpg
Yum!
You can also feed them cabbage, which makes green silk, or carrots which makes orange silk, as I did as a kid.
There used to be one near the back of the car park to the right of the takeaway shop on Lowananna St, Braddon. The last time I was there was about 3 years ago so no guarantees.
According to “Trees and Shrubs in Canberra” (L.D. Pryor & J.C.G. Banks), Morus alba (white mulberry) and Morus nigra (black mulberry) are found in Buxton Street Deakin and Gillen Street Ainslie respectively. Not sure if silkworms eat the white mulberry leaves though.
Yes Ed, they do. They are sold in some pet shops, trading post, all classifieds etc. \
Unfortunately, Curtin PS prunes their mulberry tree so that even adults cannot reach the leaves. I know some of the other public trees are pruned that way too.
Silkworms do eat the white mulberry leaves. I’ve bought a white mulberry tree myself (less staining on the washing line!).
Thanks for the contributions everyone! Maybe I’ll start the location map myself…
I would love some silkworms can you help?
Buxton St! That was the one in Deakin, thanks smilesr it was really bugging me that I couldn’t remember the street name.
There used to be some mulberry trees in Weetangera. I think they were either at the primary school or planted as street trees somewhere on the Hawker side of the suburb.
Sorry, pretty vague I know but I was six years old the last time I feasted on mulberries there–a few years ago now.
Maybe this jogs someone else’s memory.
well having a mulberry tree i can tell you mine doesnt even have its leaves out yet.
there like oaks lose all there leaves in winter so you might have a hard time finding them untill later in the season.
not 2 mention not many people have these tree’s
My black mulberry is covered in leaves and a few fruit at the moment, how many leaves do you need??
North Ainslie PS on the Majura Ave side south of the school have some but they probably like to keep them all for their own little silkworms
I’d be concerned about your tree, stonedwookie.. all the other trees in Canberra are covered with leaves!
Are you in Gungahlin or Belconnen, zek? Is your tree accessible from the front of your house? Usage is approximately 4-5 leaves per day for approximately 3 weeks. I am currently okay but I am sharing my leaves with one other family and also my son’s classroom silkworms. If you are close by, it would be a great back-up.
I am in west Belconnen, but my tree is round the back of the house.
If there is a way to get me your email/phone details, you could contact me if you run out of leaves.
I have been keeping silkworms for a couple of years now – I use the tree at Curtin (I take one of those long toy grabber things to pull down the branches!) and I drive up and down Buxton St Deakin and raid the street trees there (the leaves on the white mulberry are quite different but the silkworms don’t seem to mind).
Last year I also found trees in Narrabundah – at the tennis court carpark, and between the shops and a block of flats. There is a small tree at Village Creek Primary School in Kambah but there are fences up for building works at the moment, I believe. Must check out Weston Park to see if there’s still something there!
I am always keen to hear of more as I sell my silkworms and people always ask where to find leaves!
I hate to see the poor things do hungry but they sure do eat a lot! And this morning I found a whole box of eggs I’d forgotten about – there must have been thousands of tiny dead silkworms in there – I felt like a mass murderer.
Stonedwookie – I like your user name. My beagle is called Wookiee, you see, and he is pretty dopey.
Not sure if you still need leaves, but there’s someone on Allclassifieds offering them for free right now in the garden and plants section.