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Tuesday 12 July 2011

First Cocoon

This is a photo I took this morning, and, as you can see, it's turned into a cocoon overnight.  It's not complete yet, because it needs to spin more layers inside.  There are no more spinning yet, this one seems to be quite early.




I had a bit of a shock this morning.  Because the worm had started spinning in the basket, amongst all the other worms, I decided to leave it there and remove the rest.  Then this morning I thought I'd remove some of the leaf litter from around the cocoon . . . and found a dead worm.  I think it was probably already dead when this worm started spinning, but I was a bit worried that it might be the one which should be inside the cocoon.  And I couldn't see the worm inside because it had mostly turned opaque.  Fingers crossed!

2 comments:

  1. This looks exciting! The cocoon is a lovely colour. Strange about the dead worm... hopefully it's not the one that should be inside the cocoon! Have you got a plan to try and get most of them spinning their cocoons inside toilet roll tubes, as mentioned on that 'wormspit' website or does it depend on whether you can catch them at the right point? Good luck with your spinning worms - I hope things don't get too hectic! :)

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  2. It really is a matter of catching them just as they start to spin. I found one this evening and put it into a toilet roll inner, but it got out and wandered to another one, climbed up inside it and looked like it was starting again. Then it disappeared and ended up in a corner of the box. It still hasn't got going and I don't know which one it is now.

    I'm just leaving it overnight to do it's own thing. It's what they were born for after all.

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