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?