2. Techniques of rearing silkworm 2.1. Rearing of mulberry silkworm 2.1.1. Rearing house (for 100 dfls.

Construct rearing house of 18 feet x 12 feet x10 feet size on an elevated and shady place to accommodate 100 dfls. Provide 3 feet balcony sounding the rearing house. Provide sufficient windows and ventilators for free circulation of air inside the rearing house. Cover the windows and ventilators with nylon net to restrict the entry of house flies or uzi flies. Multivoltine: Assamese sarupat, Nistari, G race Bivoltine: NB4D2, NB18

2.1.2. Races

2.1.3. Disinfection of rearing house and appliances With 5% Bleaching powder

Dissolve 50g bleaching powder in 1 litre of water in a big plastic bucket, stir for 5-6 minutes and keep it for half an hour. Spray the clear solution in the rearing house and rearing appliances 3 days before rearing. With 2% formalin solution Dissolve 1 part of market available formalin with 17 parts of water. Spray the solution in the rearing house and appliances 3 days before rearing. Close the doors, windows and ventilators to make the room air tight. Power sprayer, rearing stands, rearing trays, foam pads, wax coated paraffin papers, nylon

2.1.4. Rearing appliances nets, basket for keeping leaves, gunny bags, rotary or bamboo mountages and drier. 2.1.5. Packages of practices for new silkworm hybrids Incubation and brushing Spread the eggs in one layer on a paraffin paper kept on a bamboo tray. Cover the eggs with another paraffin paper. Except rainy season, keep wet foam pads around the eggs covered by paraffin papers.
Maintain the room temperature at 25-26 0C and relative humidity at 80%. When blue pinhead appears wrap the eggs (25-50 dfls each) in a tissue paper and keep the eggs

inside a black painted box or cover with black cloths or papers for 1-2 days. On the next day, expose the eggs under diffused sunlight or under shade.

Brushing of newly hatched worms

Transfer the newly hatched worm carefully with a soft brush or feather to a paraffin Feed the worms with tender leaves (3rd and 4th leaf from the apex of the branch) chopped

coated paper kept on a rearing tray. with a chopper into 0.5-1 cm size. Chawki rearing: Distribute the worms uniformly in the trays. Feed the silkworm with nutritious and succulent leaf.

Provide 3-4 times feeding with tender leaves of 0.5-2 cm cut pieces during 1st stage. Provide leaves @ 5 kg/100 dfls for 1st and 18 kg/100 dfls for 2nd instar worms. During 2nd stage cut the leaf into 2-4 cm and feed 3-4 times. Maintain temperature at 27-28 0C and relative humidity at 80-90%. Every day before 2nd feeding spread the bed to facilitate drying of leaf applied in the Ensure bed cleaning once during 1st and 2nd moult and daily during 3rd stage with cotton

previous feeding. cleaning net of 0.5 cm2 mesh size. Reduce bed thickness prior to moulting. When 97% worms settle for moulting stop feeding & apply slaked lime on the body of the Remove the paraffin paper and foam pad during moult. Apply labex half an hour before resuming of feeding when 95% worms come out of worms.

moult. Late age Rearing

Use mulberry leaf only from 60 days old plantation. Provide 4 times feeding to the silk worm. Maintain rearing/ feeding room temperature at 25-26 0C and relative humidity at 65-70%.

Use tender leaves only for resuming (only one feeding after 3rd/4th moult) then change to Transfer the worm to more number of trays keeping the density of the worm within 60-70 Clean the bed with the help of bed cleaning net thrice during 3rd instar and daily during 4th

medium in 4th stage and coarser leaves in 5th age.

larvae per sq.ft. and 5th instar .

Replace the paraffin papers with clean news papers. Dust Labex half an hour before resumption of feeding when the larvae come out of the moult.

Apply labex daily half an hour before 2nd feeding during 5th instar. Provides cross ventilation. Provide correct bed spacing and feed adequately. Stop feeding when 90% worms enter into moult. Spread the bed for proper drying and aeration. Dust lime powder on the bed to keep the humidity low.

Care during moulting

Mounting and Harvesting Pick fully ripe worms (transparent, shortened larvae wondering in tray) for monlting. Mount in suitable mountages like rotary or bamboo mountages. Mount 40-45 worms per sq.ft. area.
Keep the chandrakis rotating in leftward direction so that the worms are not got dumped in

one position.

For easy self mounting and better cocoon quality, rotary mountage is ideal. Remove diseased and dead worms. Maintain temperature at 27-28 0C and RH at 60-70%. Avoid temperature more than 28 0C and RH beyond 80%. Provide aeration to remove excess moisture. Avoid strong light. Harvest the cocoons on 5th day of mounting. Remove flimsy, stained and irregular size cocoons. Hygiene Wash hand with a disinfectant prior to the entry of rearing house. Avoid entry of person other than those involved in rearing. interval. cleaning. Collect diseased worms and dispose properly (burn or bury them). Clean the rearing floor with 2% bleaching powder solution before and after bed Sprinkle 5% high grade bleaching powder around rearing house at 5-6 days

 Source:

Use bed disinfectant, Labex on the larvae when the larvae come out of moult.

1. Package of practices of Muga, Eri and Mulberry Sericulture for North Eastern region of India, 2005, Central Muga Eri Research & Training Institute, Lahdoigarh, Jorhat, Assam. 2. Directory of Sericulture Technologies 2008, Karnataka State Sericulture Research and Development Institute, Bangalore- 560 062. 2.2. Rearing of muga silkworm Muga silk worm is multivoltine and 5-6 crops are raised in a year out of which two commercial crops (Jethua: May- June and katia: October- November), two pre-seed crops (Jarua: December- January and Aherua: June- July) and two seed crops (Chotua: February- March and Bhodia: July- August. Usually pre-seed and seed crops encounter adverse climatic condition resulting in heavy loss during the early stages due to environmental rigours, disease incidence and infestation of pests and predators. Package of practices

Prune 15-20% of the plants at 6 feet height 4 months prior to rearing for early stage and 5 months prior to rearing for late stage worms. Crop Aherua (June- July) Bhodia (July- August) katia (October- November) Jarua (December- January) Chotua (February- March) Jethua (May- June) Time of pruning Early stage worms Late stage worms st 1 week of march 1st week of February st 1 week of April 1st week of March 1st and 2nd week of July 1st and 2nd week of June 1st week of September 1st week of August st nd 1 and 2 week of October 1st and 2nd week of September 1st week of December 1st week of November

Apply 30 kg FYM and N:P:K @ 44:62:17 g/plant after pruning. Dust bleaching powder and lime @ 200 g/m2 in the rearing plot one week before rearing. Consider only microscopically examined disease free eggs and incubate at 261 0C and 855 % relative humidity. Use nylon net to protect the early stage worms from pests and predators. Brush newly hatched worms on 90 days old foliage (120 days old in winter) under nylon net in between 5 to 7 AM on the opposite side of the sun. Consider only 1-3 days hatched worms for rearing. Brush 2-3 dfls per plant through visual observation of the carrying capacity of the plant.

During extreme weather conditions i.e. hailstorm, heavy rain, whirl wind etc., brush worms indoor for 2-3 days in twigs kept in wet sand or in bottles containing water. Wrap the tree trunk with oil coated polythene sheet to prevent the worms from crawling down and predators from climbing up the trees. Avoid frequent handling of worms. Use disinfected Chaloni for transfer of worms. Transfer only the healthy and uniformly mounted worms to new plants. Allow the worms to spin cocoons in bamboo box type mounts (capacity 1500 worms/mount). Keep the mounts in semi dark, well aerated and rat proof room for better cocooning. Harvest cocoons only after completion of pupation (7th day in summer and 10th day in winter). Sort out good, flimsy, Uzi infested cocoons after harvesting Select well formed good cocoons for seed production as well as for reeling purpose.

Source: 1. Package of practices of Muga, Eri and Mulberry Sericulture for North Eastern region of India, 2005, Central Muga Eri Research & Training Institute, Lahdoigarh, Jorhat, Assam. 2. Directory of Sericulture Technologies 2008, Karnataka State Sericulture Research and Development Institute, Bangalore- 560 062. 2.3. Rearing of eri silkworm Rearing room: Rearing should be conducted in well ventilated and fly proof rearing room with 4ft. all around verandah. Disinfection

Wash the rearing room and appliances with 0.05% bleaching powder solution before rearing. Keep the appliances inside the rearing room and seal the cracks on the walls of the room. Fumigate with 5% formaldehyde solution under high humid condition. Open the room after 24 hours. Disinfect the rearing house at least 3 days before and soon after the rearing.

Races: Borduar white, Genang local, Nongpoh pale cream, Kokrajhar red Season: Rearing can be conducted throughout the year except in dry/hot weather. Egg incubation: Incubate the dfls at 24-26 0C and 80relative humidity. Brushing

90%

Wash hands with 2% formalin solution and then water. Brush newly hatched worms on tender leaves during morning hours. Rear maximum 300 nos. of 5th instar worms per 3 ft. x 3 ft. diameter tray.

with

Feeding Feed 1st instar worms on tender, 3rd and 4th instar on semi-matured and 5th instar on matured leaves. Feed the worms 5 times a day with castor or kesseru leaves. Bed cleaning: Resort to bed cleaning daily. Ripe worm collection

Ripe worms become yellowish white and start roaming for selection of site for cocoon formation. While picking up the matured worms and rubbing in between fingers, a sound of hollowness is produced. Such worms are collected and put to cocooning mountages (Chandrakaies).

Source: 1. Package of practices of Muga, Eri and Mulberry Sericulture for North Eastern region of India, 2005, Central Muga Eri Research & Training Institute, Lahdoigarh, Jorhat, Assam. 2. Directory of Sericulture Technologies 2008, Karnataka State Sericulture Research and Development Institute, Bangalore- 560 062.