2008 Cocooning Update!
Promethea and polyphemus cocoon
Went walking down by the chippewa river on sunday to look for silk moth cocoons and didnt come back empty handed! It was neat to see huge flocks of geese moving all around along with hundreds of mallards trying to find a spot on the river with no ice. I had all my luck right up close to the water where in the spring the cocoons would be submerged for a few weeks as the snow melts. My first cocoon came on a paper birch sapling followed by another one right next to it that had been subjected to disease or parasites. A few birch trees down the bank i found a cecropia but it looked faded and had holes in it so i just left it. I kept walking along the banks and stumbled across 2 promethea cocoons hanging on a sapling ash tree( not to common to find them on ash around here usually cherries).
After that i was cold and headed back to my girlfriends house to drive deer for her father. Saw one buck but he didnt get a shot and during the drive i stumbled across a large almost circular shaped cecropia cocoon. I have found cecropia cocoons like this before but they have all been dead. I grabbed it and pulled it off the willow branch and gave it a shake and to my surprise sounded promising. It also had a decent amount of weight to it.
Left: loose baggy wild cocoon.Right: wild compact cocoon
Ian Miller
November 24th, 2008 at 6:43 pm
I'm going to add a little to Ian's post from a note he sent to me a few days ago - about finding cocoons. I think it's an interesting idea.
He said "It seems to me that if you find one cocoon that more are in the area. I have almost been able to trace the flight of the moth that they came from in some instances."
Marcie