Sooo… I’m tinkering with a fuel injection problem on my Jeep today under the shade of a huge Honey Locust tree (Gleditsia triacanthos) when this nice silkworm cocoon dropped down and landed on the Jeep hood. Fairly common occurrence. Birds love the little wormy caterpillars but won’t eat the instar cocoons that eventually drop down on a single silk thread to harden, hatch, and start a new instar until they eventually fledge as a full grown moth to mate and lay eggs for the next generations.
I’m keeping and donating this one to a local seamstress friend who repairs damaged silk scarves and undies. One this size could yield maybe 10 yards of continuous ultra-fine silk thread. She raises other bigger cocoons in an indoor hothouse, especially the ones from American Mulberry trees that are prized for their yield of 100 yards or more of a more resilient continuous silk filament. That is the traditional silk found in most Asian made garments. The silk is clear or slightly creamy opaque after boiling the dried cocoon — yeah I know, poor little critter — to loosen the bonds between silk fibers, then gently tugging on a loose bit with tweezers and slowly unraveling the silken harvest onto a hand cranked mini spinning wheel. I hope she likes it 😎