CATDOLL : CATDOLL: There seem to be fewer and fewer golden cicadas in rural areas. Can you make money by breeding them artificially?

Cultivation of golden cicadas has become popular in recent years. Cicadas, like many insects, are high-protein foods with high nutritional value. With the rise of health concepts such as healthy eating, creative food culture such as insect meals is also gradually developing and growing. These have played a role in promoting the cultivation of golden cicadas.

Is it profitable to raise cicadas?

Cicada breeding is an emerging industry with a huge market and profit margins, but there is no project in the world that is absolutely guaranteed to make a profit. Cicada breeding and other traditional breeding also have risks. There is no guarantee in the breeding industry, and this is true for pigs, sheep, cattle and horses, as well as cicada breeding. Seed sources, technology and sales are all key links that restrict farmers!

Analysis on the Benefits of Cicada Breeding

Based on the calculation of planting 100 poplar trees per mu of land at a spacing of 2 meters by 3 meters, saplings are planted in the first year, and the cost is 2 yuan per tree. In the first year, the trees are allowed to grow without placing egg strips. From the second year, egg strips are placed, 20 strips per tree, and the market price of egg strips is 0.5 yuan per strip. The investment per mu of land is: 100 trees * 20 strips * 0.5 = 1,000 yuan.

Investment in the first year: 100 trees * 2 yuan/tree = 200 yuan Profit: 0

Second year investment: 1000 yuan income: 0

Investment in the third year: 0 yuan Return: 0

Investment in the fourth year: 0 yuan Return: 100 catties * 40 yuan/catties = 4,000 yuan

Investment in the fifth year: 0 yuan Return: 100 catties * 40 yuan/catties = 4,000 yuan

After 5 years, the total profit is: 8,000 yuan, the total investment is: 1,200 yuan, and the gross income is: 8,000-1,200 = 6,800 yuan.

Prospects of Cicada Breeding

Golden cicada has extremely high nutritional value and unique taste. The newly unearthed nymphs contain the highest protein, making it a rare high-protein, low-fat wild delicacy. In addition to its edible value, grasshopper cicada also has extremely high medicinal value. Grasshopper cicada has a unique flavor, rich nutrition, and good medicinal and food health care effects. According to research by experts from the Chinese Nutrition Society, every 100 grams of dry powder of grasshopper cicada contains 4 grams of water, 7.19 grams of fat, 71.4 grams of protein, 10.9 grams of carbohydrates, 30 milligrams of trace elements potassium, 17 milligrams of calcium, and 8 milligrams of zinc. It seems that the nutritional value of cicada is indeed very high.

In addition to its edible value, golden cicadas also have medicinal functions. When the mature nymphs of cicadas change into adults, the outer shell they shed is called cicada molt, also known as "cicada molt" or "cicada skin". Its main components include chitin and protein, and it tastes sweet, salty, and cold. It enters the lung and liver meridians and is an important pungent and cool Chinese medicine for relieving exterior symptoms. Fresh and tender cicada nymphs and adults, especially nymphs, are not only nutritious and delicious, but also have particularly high medicinal value, making them top-grade medicinal foods.

Cicadas have a long history as a traditional Chinese medicine in my country and are well known. The insects used as medicine include adults, larvae and cicada molts. The first to be used as medicine were adults, while the cicada molts are now widely used. As an important traditional ingredient, cicada molts have the functions of antibacterial, cold-dispelling, sedative and diuretic.

Modern medicine believes that cicadas and cicada shells contain a lot of chitin, which has been put on the market as anti-aging and anti-cancer drugs and health products in recent years, and the price is very expensive. Chitin also has the functions of strengthening the liver, lowering blood pressure, relieving pain, stopping bleeding, removing bacteria, improving diabetes, and improving digestion ability. It can even be used as raw materials for artificial skin and artificial ligaments. There is a great prospect for its development and utilization in the future. There is a great potential for cicada breeding, and the breeding prospects are unlimited.

Cicada breeding technology

1. Obtaining Seed Sources

1. Collecting eggs. Collecting eggs is done in autumn after the cicadas lay eggs, usually around the seventh month of the lunar calendar. Cicadas use the small thorns on their tails to pierce the tender branches of one year old trees and lay eggs in the branches, mostly on juicy branches such as fruit trees. After laying eggs, the branches will dry up, so most branches with green lower ends and dry tips have cicada eggs. To collect eggs, you can choose an ideal place with dense trees and many cicadas. Use fruit branch shears or a long pole with a hook on the top to cut off the dry branches with cicada eggs on the tree, bundle 50-100 pieces into a small bundle, and put them in a plastic bag for later use.

In addition to collecting cicada eggs naturally, you can build a gauze greenhouse to provide space for adults to lay eggs. You can use the fruit trees in abandoned orchards to replant fruit tree seedlings, and use cement columns or bamboo sticks to build fences around them, and then pull iron wires in the middle, and cover the outside with nylon window screens. Put the captured adults in it to mate and lay eggs, and then you can keep the number of adults as needed, without having to collect seed sources from the wild.

2. Post-harvest treatment. After collecting the branches with cicada eggs, remove the dry leaves, cut off the two ends, and bundle 30 branches into a bundle. Spread a layer of sand on the bottom of a large washing basin, and put the bundled branches upright in the basin. Keep the temperature at 28-34%, and keep the humidity moist. Spray when it is dry. Use a sprayer to spray the branches until they are soaked.

2. Incubation

Collect the branches with eggs directly from the wild or from the seed source site and gather them in the hatching shed to promote hatching. Hatching method: In a plastic box 70 cm long, 40 cm wide and 20 cm high, spread 5-10 cm thick fine dry sand on the bottom, put the egg branches in bundles vertically or horizontally on it, and spray mist with a small sprayer to keep the air around the branches with eggs high humidity so that excess water droplets are adsorbed in the fine sand at the bottom. The hatching of eggs should be checked continuously in the middle. When nymphs are found to be active, the branches can be placed in the breeding place together with the fine sand. The larvae will hatch in about 15 days. At this time, you can see some larvae climbing up and down on the branches. When about 20% of the larvae are hatched, they should be buried. The burial pit should be selected in an area with many fine and soft hair roots so that the larvae can absorb nutrients from the roots. It is best to choose a forest with loose soil.

3. Breeding

The breeding targets are newly hatched nymphs and eggs that are close to hatching. The soil should be loose and moist loam without sand, compaction, ants, and moles. It is also advisable to choose a place where there were many cicada monkeys last year as a place to bury the egg branches.

The breeding time is generally from September to October (two-year eggs) or from June to July (single-year eggs). Dig regular narrow trenches about 30-50 cm deep under the host plant tree in the breeding place, about 1 meter away from the base of the trunk. Dig the pit into a strip shape, with the depth mainly digging to the hairy roots and the width of one shovel. Put the branches with hatched larvae into the pit along the pit, and the larvae will hug the plant roots by themselves. When returning the soil, be gentle and slow. Do not step on the soil after returning it, and do not water it to ensure ventilation. After breeding, cover the soil and compact it, and keep a record of the time, quantity, breeding trench shape and depth.

4. Supply high-quality feed

Choose healthy tree species with well-developed root systems, lush growth, and more sap, such as fast-growing poplars, elms, willows, tung trees, or various fruit trees in orchards. In addition, some root and tuber plants, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams, should also be planted.

5. Provide good environmental conditions

The appropriate depth for the "breeding" of cicadas is 30-50 cm. They should be sunny and frost-proof. The soil should be soft, fertile, and pollution-free. It should not be too dry, nor should it have too much water or water accumulation. This ensures that the root system of the host plant grows and develops normally, and that the young plants are tender, developed, and juicy. In winter, the breeding area should be covered with wheat straw, rice straw, corn straw, etc. to maintain the ground temperature.

6. Breeding management

After the cicada eggs are buried in the ground, attention should be paid to drainage and waterlogging prevention in the rainy season. In dry days, water the white willow branches, willow trees or apple trees. While watering, topdress with farmyard manure to promote luxuriant growth and provide sufficient nutrition sources for the cicada larvae - young cicada monkeys, so that the young cicada monkeys can grow vigorously, increase their size and increase production. Strictly prevent trampling by humans and animals and damage by natural enemies such as ants and moles.

7. Harvest

After burying the egg branches for 2-3 years, the cicadas begin to grow and mature gradually. The harvesting period is generally during the summer solstice every year. If there is a heavy rain, the fat and strong nymphs will start to drill out of the ground at 4-5 am, or after the rain, the nymphs will dig a hole in the soft ground with a pair of saw-like front feet. After crawling out of the ground, they will do a short exercise on the ground, and then climb the tree trunk or trellis to prepare to shed their shells. After 2-4 hours, they will shed their skin and become cicadas (cicadas). According to this characteristic of the golden cicada, after the summer solstice every year, if there is no rain and drought, the breeding site can be artificially irrigated to induce the cicadas to emerge. Before the cicadas emerge, or before the cicadas mature, a circle of smooth plastic film can be tied around the tree trunk 30 cm above the ground to prevent the cicadas from continuing to crawl up the tree for easy harvesting. You can also use a flashlight to illuminate and catch them on the ground and tree trunks under the tree at night. Or catch the young adult cicadas on the tree in the early morning.

People say that raising cicadas is also a way to soothe one's character and cultivate one's temperament, and it is also a kind of "Zen". Indeed, raising cicadas requires waiting, waiting for the seedlings to grow and become a forest, waiting for the golden Zen to continue to grow and become stronger. In fact, all breeding industries are like meditation, and they all require concentration and patience in waiting until the day when the skill is perfected.

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You can definitely make money if you breed them, but it depends on how many of them survive in the end.

This is possible if you want to raise it, but the premise is that you can keep it alive.

However, the demand for cicadas has not decreased, and everyone still loves to eat them. Since no one is catching them or the number of cicadas has decreased, is it feasible to breed them artificially? In fact, it is not easy to raise animals like golden cicadas. They have many stages, such as adults, cocoons, etc. It takes a lot of time and energy, and the results may not be good. Unless there is sufficient technical support, don't try it easily.

When analyzing a market prospect, let's first think about the reasons why the number of golden cicadas has decreased. 1: Large-scale felling of trees in recent years We all know that the best living environment for golden cicadas is in places with many trees, but in recent years, the phenomenon of large-scale felling of trees in rural areas has become more and more serious, causing damage to the ecological environment. We have destroyed the environment in which they usually live, and they have no habitat, so naturally, their habitats have become less and less. To give a very simple example, when I was a child, the place where I went to catch golden cicadas used to be a large area of ​​trees, but now the trees have been cut down, and high-rise buildings have sprung up from the ground. This principle is just like us humans. When we don't have a house to live in, we won't stay in this place for too long.

Golden cicadas are raised under forests. They can grow under various fruit trees and wood trees. It is difficult to interplant crops under trees over three years old. Golden cicadas are pure natural, pollution-free green wild insects (artificially raised golden cicadas only shorten the initial hatching time, and the entire growth process is still completely wild). They are not polluted by feed additives, pesticides, and hormones. They are high in protein and low in fat. They are very popular with consumers. The price is rising year after year. Restaurants, hotels, and refrigerated food factories will come to purchase them. The market prospects are extremely broad.

At present, it is recommended to be cautious in artificial breeding. I remember reading books on breeding cicadas before. Under normal circumstances, it takes about 2 years for cicadas to become adults, and on one acre of land, the number of adults is about 150 kilograms (I don’t know if the breeding technology has improved and the output has increased in recent years). If some friends are planting trees, you can consider giving it a try. If you want to rent some land specifically to breed cicadas, it is recommended that you think twice before doing so. It’s not that breeding cicadas is not possible, but I just think that the technology may not be perfect.

This is generally still very profitable, because if you are greedy, its value is still very large.