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Deep Look
Silkworms Spin Cocoons That Spell Their Own Doom
Season 9
Episode 7
Those precious silk garments in your closet were made by the caterpillars of a fuzzy white moth – thousands of them. Silkworms spin a cocoon with a single strand of silk up to 10 city blocks long. Humans have bred these insects into weaving machines that can no longer survive in the wild.