Silk worms are really not worms at all! Silk worms are actually the larvae of certain types of moths! The silk worm has been used for centuries in the manufacturing of textiles.

“I saw you have an article about the little black worms/caterpillars with long thread silk and I have a video of what I think is the same thing”, writes Alicia regarding the minuscule, black organism pictured below. “Could you please tell me how to get rid of them and what they are? I am in Perth.” We are not sure what article Alicia refers to, but regardless, we have identified this as an inchworm. The video gives it away: inchworms have a unique way of moving around which is a product of their anatomy. Inchworms have prolegs and rear legs, but not legs in the middle of their body. For that reason, the middle of their back arches as they ‘inch’ forward. They will also typically lift their entire front body (like in the video) and swivel it around as they try to redirect themselves.

The other day we received a message from a reader who wants to know how to get rid of inchworms and silkworms, or how to get rid of “inch worms” and “silk worms,” as she has it. To call what we received a “message” is a bit misleading, however, since all we were sent was a mere sentence fragment composed almost entirely of capital letters. (Inexplicably, one instance of the word “worm” was written normally, but the rest was all caps.) We’ll try our best to answer our reader’s question, such as it is.

It is estimated that approximately 75 million pounds of raw silk are produced each year on silkworm farms. It takes more than 3,000 cocoons to make one pound of silk and more than 10 billion pounds of mulberry leaves to feed the silkworms that produce the silk.

The degumming and spinning process used to create peace silk allows the moth to safely emerge from the cocoon and live out the remainder of its life cycle — in peace.

The silk is produced in the salivary glands of the silkworm and it is used for protection during the silkworm’s pupal stage.