Silk Worm Failure

Occasionally at LCI, we get classroom science projects that are more of a "long-term" responsibility. They like to give us some sort of living organism and watch the teachers try to keep these things alive. So far, I've experienced a jar of mushrooms and snails. The snails by far have been the most successful, last longer than many other classroom snails due to a natural resiliency I think they must have embodied. Unfortunately, they met an untimely death when I left them on the classroom windowsill over a weekend and forgot about them. (See Sorry Snails) 

Last Friday, the teachers walked into the office to meet their new class pets: silk worms.  

We were each given 2 silkworms and a bag of mulberry leaves to feed them. I knew I was in trouble from the get-go because 1) I think these are gross creatures and cannot for an emotional bond to them. 2) One of them was pretty much already dead. I say pretty much because I thought it was dead, so I took a tissue to pick it up out of the case. Then I noticed it attached itself to the tissue and wouldn't let go, so it was not soooo dead. I put the worm and the tissue back into the case. 3) My worms did not seem to be eating as voraciously as the other teachers' worms.

I decided to keep my chin up though. I dutifully pinned up the science poster, packed the case with extra leaves for the weekend, and left the worms in a shady spot (as instructed by the poster).

Monday morning I went to check on them and give them some more leaves. Pretty much dead worm was now almost completely dead; I shook the case a couple times to make sure and it maybe moved and seemed well-covered by leaves, so I thought I'd give it the benefit of the doubt. However, it's body also seemed to be drying out and cracking...so I thought I would give it 1 more day just to make sure.

Tuesday morning I come in to check...and Almost completely dead worm is now officially dead. The other worm, live worm, somehow also managed to die over night. It's neck was all shriveled and the tail looked all powdery.

So that means in less than a week, I managed to kill off 2 (mostly) thriving silk worms and end a science project that I'm sure is supposed to last 1-2 months. Oh well, at least we didn't give them names....