CATDOLL : CATDOLL: Snail farming

Farming technology

Snails are terrestrial soft-bodied shelled animals. They hide during the day and come out at night. They like dark and humid places, are afraid of light and heat, and live mostly in weedy, lush trees, lush crops, and loose soil with a lot of humus, haystacks, caves, and under branches, fallen leaves, and stones. When the ground is dry or in poor conditions, they often crawl to the trunks, axils, or the backs of leaves to hide and hibernate. The suitable temperature for their growth is 7-24℃, the air humidity is 75-90%, and the pH of the topsoil is 5-7. When encountering adverse conditions, the soft part can be drilled into the topsoil 250 mm to hibernate, or a milky white opaque mucus membrane can be secreted to seal the shell. Snails come out after 11 pm and have a strong tolerance to cold, drought, and hunger. However, they cannot adapt to various odorous chemicals such as lime, wood ash, and coal tar.

Snails are omnivorous animals. Young snails are saprophagous, mainly feeding on decaying plants; adult snails generally feed on green plants, including roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, etc. They especially like to eat young shoots and succulent plants, as well as various waste paper, pig manure, plant residues, etc. They will even cannibalize each other when hungry.

Snails lay eggs 2-3 times in two years, with the peak period from June to August each year. They lay 200-300 eggs twice, and the eggs are laid in loose soil 2-3 mm deep or under fallen leaves or stones. Snails stop feeding when laying eggs, and most of the heads first burrow into the soil. After a period of time, the head and feet shrink to the shell mouth, and the feet are flat and attached to the ground or stones. The eggs are oval, with a calcareous shell, milky white or light green-yellow. The eggs hatch into larvae after about 5-15 days in the soil. There are artificial hatching methods for eggs, including soil-covering hatching, cloth-covering hatching, pot-covering hatching, and dry egg, soil-separated, and heat-insulating hatching methods. Generally, the temperature is required to be 20-30℃, and a certain humidity is maintained. After about 10 days, the young snails can be hatched.

For indoor artificial breeding of snails, it is advisable to choose a leeward open space, build a 20-meter, 3-meter-wide, and 2-meter-high breeding shed with bamboo or steel bars, and cover the shed with plastic film. You can also use plastic soil sheds, old glass greenhouses, or soil hotbeds for growing vegetables. For indoor bed breeding, it is advisable to use cement and steel bars to cast a 1-meter-long and 0.8-meter-wide board, build 3 to 4 layers, and the layer height is 0.6 to 0.8 meters. Then use screens to separate each layer, and spread 15 cm thick humus soil on the two layers of boards. 30 snails can be placed per square meter, feed once a day, and spray water 1 to 2 times. For indoor wooden box breeding, it is advisable to make a box about 90 cm long, 45 cm wide, and 40 cm high, and build it layer by layer for centralized breeding. Spread 10 to 15 cm thick humus soil in the box, put vegetable leaves, etc., put 20 to 30 snails in two boxes, and water it once every two evenings with a watering can to make the inner wall of the box moist.

Snails should be fed once every night. Vegetables, crops, green manure crops, weed roots, stems, leaves, flowers and fruits of each season, melon peels, fruit peels, leftovers and waste paper can be used, and some concentrated feed, protein feed and core-peeled mineral feed can be added. Snails can also be fed once every two days. Snails can eat leftovers and humus. Keep watering to keep the site humidity at 15-27%, PH5-7, and air humidity at 75-90%. The young snails hatched in the same year will reach 5 whorls in 5 months, weighing more than 50 grams, and the large ones will weigh about 90 grams. In breeding, natural enemies such as chickens, ducks, sparrows, pigeons, and mice should be prevented from harm.

The key point of breeding is the temperature of 16-40℃, the best is 25℃, and it can be higher but not lower. Heating must be done by earth dragon fire channel, and it should be prepared all year round, especially in late spring and early summer. It is necessary to prevent sudden cooling. If conditions permit, heating is best, and stove heating should not be used. Humidity. The surface humidity of the breeding soil should be maintained at 25%-35%, and the relative humidity of the air should be 85%-90%. It can be wet but not dry. Plastic cloth should be used to cover the top for moisture control and moisture retention. Prevent dry wind and cold air from blowing in directly. Double doors, hanging cloth and wind shield should be used for the entrance. Resolutely control the entry of odorous gases into the breeding ground. The breeding soil must be controlled at pH6.5-7.5, and it is forbidden to use polluted sand and soil that have been applied with pesticides and chemicals. The breeding container must have good water permeability and air permeability. Do not irradiate with strong light when not working. It is best to be dark. Use 15W red bulbs for lighting at night to stimulate spawning. Hatching of eggs. The key to the success of snail farming lies in the hatching of eggs. The indoor temperature should be controlled at 20-25℃, the air humidity at 90%-95%, and the soil surface humidity at 25%-30%. The egg collection and hatching method should be improved, and the snail breeding method should be adopted for 60 days. This method can greatly improve the breeding efficiency of snails, and the general shelling rate is more than 95%. The breeding of young snails is related to the key to the rapid development of the number and output of snails. Special attention should be paid to the control of temperature and humidity. The temperature should generally be controlled between 25 and 30℃, the moisture content of the breeding soil should be 30%-35%, and the relative humidity of the air should be 80%-90%. Eat more fresh and juicy feed, supplemented with calcium food. Humidify the breeding pool of snails aged 1 to 3 months, and do not splash water. Use a sprayer, preferably warm water. Remove sick and dead snails in time. Clean the feces frequently. It is best to mix earthworms and snails to kill two birds with one stone. Prevent natural enemies from invading, kill rats and ants, spray with 1/1000 trichlorfon solution regularly, which can effectively kill the biggest natural enemy of snails - mites, and regularly use peracetic acid dilution to disinfect the snail breeding site to kill pathogenic microorganisms. Lowest cost, best effect feed formula: 50% rice bran, 40% shells, 8% yeast powder, and 2% others. Feeding and management

Feeding method

It can be roughly divided into two types: outdoor open type and indoor closed type.

Outdoor open-type breeding includes trench-type, shed-type, courtyard-type, etc., which allow snails to grow and reproduce in a protective circle similar to natural conditions. Indoor closed breeding can use plastic basins, earthen basins, wooden boxes, cement pools, tanks, barrels, cans, etc., and use gauze, wet cloth, and film to seal the mouth to keep warm and moisturize and prevent rodent damage. Indoor closed breeding is convenient for regulating temperature and humidity. With sufficient feed, it can not only relieve the hibernation of snails, but also achieve the purpose of winter breeding. It is best to use plastic film to seal the surroundings of indoor breeding to maintain temperature and humidity.

Preparation of feeding soil

1. Compound garden soil

30% uncontaminated sand, 30% farmland soil, 20% yellow sand, 15% coal ash, and 5% stone powder are mixed and crushed, exposed to the sun for 3 to 5 days for disinfection and insecticide, sieved, and then water is added to make the humidity about 40%, that is, it can be kneaded into a ball and fall apart with a blow. The thickness of the soil in the pot is: 7 cm for growing snails, 10 cm for adult snails, and 3 cm for young snails. It is replaced once every 1 to 2 months of feeding.

2. Sponge replacement method

Spread a 5 cm thick layer of sponge on the bottom of the pool or box, and keep it 4 times its own weight in water. Clean up leftover food every day and clean up feces every 3 days.

Feeding method

For young snails under 1 month old, they should be fed with some fresh and tender leaves. The concentrated feed should be softened with boiling water and stuck to the leaves. Feed once a day. The optimum temperature should be controlled at 25℃～30℃. The temperature difference between day and night should not be large. Do not spray water directly on young snails. In addition to green feed, growing snails should be fed with more concentrated feed, and trace elements and additives should be added. The daily feeding amount is 7%～10% of the snail's body weight. Feed should be placed in a food rack or food bowl to clean up the residue. The stocking density increases from dense to sparse with the increase of individuals, 400～200 per square meter. A 60×30×25 cm breeding box can hold 100 snails. After 5～6 months, when the shell height is 4 cm and the weight is more than 40g, they can be harvested.

Winter management

Hibernation can be ended under artificial temperature and humidity control. If the breeding conditions are not met, when the temperature drops to around 15℃, insulation treatment should be carried out according to local conditions. If it is moved indoors, the breeding soil should be thickened to 25 cm and cotton wool should be used for insulation.

A brief history of breeding

Snails have a long history of being used for food and medicine in my country. More than 2,000 years ago, the "Yushi Pian" of Er Ya recorded snails in detail. In the 6th century BC, Tao Hongjing's "Ming Yi Bie Lu" recorded examples of snails curing diseases. In 1774 AD, Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty described the morphology and medicinal value of snails in detail in "Compendium of Materia Medica". Since the 20th century, many scientists have made many contributions to the study of snails, especially to the breeding and application of snails, but no breakthrough has been made. Until the 1980s, the production and export of snails in mainland my country were still very small, and the export volume was less than 1/10 of that in Taiwan Province. But since the late 1980s, when people conducted a comprehensive analysis and test of snails, they found that they contained 20 kinds of amino acids, more than 30 kinds of enzymes and blood agglutinins in their bodies. After truly understanding the value and role of snails to humans, the snail breeding industry has flourished and gradually become a prosperous family sideline in urban and rural areas of my country.

So far, more than 20 provinces and cities, including Hebei, Guangdong, Fujian, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Hubei, Hainan, Jiangsu, Henan, Shandong, Hunan, Sichuan, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, etc., have seen a craze for artificially raising snails, and are developing in the direction of scale and industrialization. my country's snail farming is catching up with the world's advanced level. After years of development, the main snail farming area in the mainland is located in Jiaxing City, Zhejiang Province, and Yuxin Town, the hometown of snails. According to data, three companies in Jiaxing City (Yuxin Jiangnan Snail Breeding Base in Nanhu District, Jiaxing City, Hongfu Snail Breeding Co., Ltd., Jiaxing City Qianfu Food Co., Ltd.) not only play the role of leading enterprises in the local area, but are also among the best in the country.

Before the birth of the white jade snail, many countries mainly bred the brown cloud agate snail because it reproduces quickly, has strong disease resistance, is easy to raise, and has the richest nutritional content. Since the white jade snail was bred, many countries have imported it because it not only has all the advantages of the brown cloud agate snail, but also has a beautiful color like jade. As a result, the white jade snail has become popular all over the world.

The development of white jade snails in China has accelerated the breeding and development of white jade snails. In a very short period of time, due to the joint efforts of many experts and scholars, not only the living habits and reproduction rules of white jade snails were figured out, but also the nutritional components of white jade snails were fully tested. Based on its nutritional value, a series of snail products were developed and exported to Southeast Asia, Europe and the United States. Therefore, the breeding and development and utilization of snails can be said to be both a traditional ancient project and a new high-tech project.

Foreign countries started studying snails later than my country. Scholars in some European and American countries started studying snails in the 18th and 19th centuries, but they were ahead of my country in development and utilization. In recent years, many developing countries have used their own resources to accelerate the development of snail breeding and processing industries, and made them an important export and foreign exchange earning project.

Snails are very rich in nutrients. The protein, coumarin, alkaloids, organic acids and other elements in snail meat are higher than those in turtles, pork and all egg foods. In particular, the protein content ranks first among animals in the world. Most of its biochemical indicators are much higher than spirulina, which is known as the health food of the 21st century. The high protein, high calcium, low fat and low cholesterol in snails are very beneficial to human health. There are more than 20 kinds of amino acids and more than 30 kinds of enzymes in its body, which are most needed by people but difficult to obtain from other foods. The lectin extracted from the snail protein gland has great application value in blood research. The price of each gram of lectin in the international market far exceeds that of gold, so snails are known as "soft gold".

In addition, snail enzymes extracted from snails are also important process raw materials in many industries such as medicine, biology, textiles, cosmetics, and fermentation. Therefore, the commercial value of snail farming is very considerable.

Snails are terrestrial molluscs. Common species include the homotype barnacle snail, the African giant snail, the snail, the Chinese white jade snail, the wild agate snail, the scattered snail, the bright snail, the brown cloud agate snail, the cover snail, the apple snail, etc. Their living habits and prevention methods are similar. Not all snails are harmful organisms.

Like slugs, snails have long, flat legs on their ventral sides. They move forward by contracting their muscles. They secrete mucus as they move forward, which becomes shiny when dry. We can do an interesting observation experiment to measure the crawling speed of snails: put a snail on dry ground, and it moves 9 to 13 centimeters per minute; when it crawls to shaded ground, its speed slows down, moving 6 to 8 centimeters per minute; when it crawls to ground with a thin layer of water, its speed speeds up, gliding 25 to 30 centimeters per minute. Some Western countries hold snail races every year. In 1985, Spain held a snail race, with 68 snail contestants from 8 countries participating. In the competition, a Spanish snail won the championship, running 124 centimeters in 5 minutes.

Hazards and Prevention

The snails of the same type use citrus trees as hosts, often eating notches in the leaves and the bark of branches, leaving pits in the fruits. Other host plants include tree seedlings, vegetables and flowers.

Snails can cause damage to soybean seedlings, which can cause damage to leaves and stems, delayed germination of seedlings, and reduced seedling success. In severe cases, snails can eat up all the seedlings, leaving a large area without seedlings. Comprehensive measures should be taken to prevent and control snails in soybean fields.

Eliminate snails

In late spring and early summer, especially before the peak snail breeding period in May and June, it is necessary to kill adult snails in time. One is to release chickens and ducks to eat adult snails, and it should be done before pesticides are used. The other is to pick up snails manually. When working in the field, pick up snails when you see them, or use grass or vegetables to lure them and then pick them up, or pick up snails manually. This can achieve twice the result with half the effort in killing snails.

Chemical control

With the goal of protecting soybean seedlings, when the snail population is large and about to enter the peak period of damage, use chemical agents to control snails. Use 300g of polyformaldehyde, 50g of sucrose, 300g of 5% calcium arsenate and 400g of rice bran (fry them in a pan first), mix them into soybean-sized particles; use 0.5-0.6kg of 6% Mida snail-killing granules or 1.5-3kg of 3% Metol granules per mu, mix with 10-15kg of dry fine soil and spread evenly in the field. Apply appropriately heavy applications in ditches and wetlands where snails like to live to minimize snail damage.

weakness

Salt reacts to the surface of the snail. Because there is a layer of mucus on the surface of the snail (except the shell), it is conducive to the snail's movement and skin-assisted breathing. When you sprinkle salt on it, the snail's ability to move and breathe is reduced. The mucus seeps out of the body, causing the snail's body to shrink and the cells to lack water. At this time, the snail seems to be dried in the sun, but it will never turn into water.

Cleaning the Fields

After summer crops or vegetables are harvested, weeds in the fields, embankments and ditches should be removed in time, ditches should be dug to reduce moisture, and the soil should be tilled to improve the environment for the growth and reproduction of snails.