________________
CONSCIOUS CONSUMER
Silk
Most of us use silk material and silk products After 20 days of incubation these eggs hatch because they look very elegant and draw and tiny silkworms emerge. They are about attention from others. However, while 12 inch in the beginning. The worms are enjoying the different kinds of silk we may kept in very clean trays. not realize or we may be ignoring what goes on behind the scene to obtain this material. We Jains, the believers of Ahimsä, should understand how silk is obtained. This explanation shows what the silk worms or silk moths go through. The life cycle and life history of the silk worm is a very important part of this formula. It starts with the silk moth laying
Silkworms feeding on mulberry leaves eggs. Each moth lays somewhere between 300 to 600 eggs. Once the eggs are laid, the
These silkworms have very large appetites. silk moth usually dies.
They eat all the time. They are fed fresh The eggs are held in cold storage for some mulberry leaves and these tiny worms grow time. In the early parts of each spring these into fat worms about three inches long and eggs are put into incubators. An incubator one inch thick. is a hot chamber, maintained at a certain
To get these mulberry leaves for the worms temperature, suitable for the growth and
the farmers grow them for this specific subsequent hatching of the eggs.
purpose. These worms look very adorable. The worms are put in baskets filled with mulberry leaves. They eat continuously and grow fat. When they stop growing they are transferred to different wooden baskets with spiral
compartments filled with stems of straws 2,500 silkworms
and twigs. Here the worms have very little are boiled or baked space to move. To attach themselves to the alive to make one
twigs the worms spin a web. While moving
around the worms secretes a gum-like silk sari!
fluid that hardens the silk threads together. After spinning for about 3 days a cocoon formation is completed around the worm. Now the worms change into a pupa that
Did you know?
120
catior
THE FIRST STEP OF JAINISM
