Creepy Crawley Da Lat

Creepy Crawley Da Lat
Two silk moths

The moths live only long enough to mate and lay eggs.

Creepy Crawley Da Lat

This is an older manual machine that spins the silkworm cocoons into strands of silk. A person has to separate strands from the cocoons initially which the machine will then pull on and spin together with other strands.

Creepy Crawley Da Lat
A spool of silk
Creepy Crawley Da Lat

So much silk thread.

Creepy Crawley Da Lat

Cocoons waiting to be processed.

Creepy Crawley Da Lat

They are strange to hold. They are quite firm, and rattle when shaken.

Creepy Crawley Da Lat

This was an old machine that produces silk cloth with a pattern. It's not used for real production anymore.

Creepy Crawley Da Lat

The pattern is determined by these bunch card programs. I glad I don't have to produce code like this...

Creepy Crawley Da Lat
Crickets
Creepy Crawley Da Lat
More crickets
Creepy Crawley Da Lat

A very shiny waspy sort of creature

On our tour around Da Lat's countryside there were a couple bug related stops. 

The first was a silk factory where silkworm coccons are spun to produce silk. It was really cool to see how it all works and the scale involved. There must have been hundreds of thousands of cocoons waiting to be spun. The worms are grown elsewhere and arrive already in cocoons. 

The second stop was a rice wine distillery that also had a cricket farm where crickets are grown for food.