CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How to manage the egg-laying insects of earthworms?

Ground beetle (ground beetle) is also known as ground beetle, earth beetle, crossing the street, ground turtle, segmented insect, stink bug, earthworm. It is an insect with a flat body, brown-black, males have wings, and females do not. It often moves in the soil at the base of residential walls. It can be used as medicine. It is also called stinging insect (zhèchóng), commonly known as ground beetle. The dried body of the female insect of Eupolyphagasinensis Walker or Steleophaga plancyi of the family Steleophaga. After catching, put it in boiling water to kill it, dry it in the sun or bake it.

Feeding tank:

It is a kind of breeding equipment for small-scale breeding of earthworms. It is an ordinary tank commonly used in the family. It can be large or small. Cracked tanks can also be used as long as they are repaired with lime or cement. The inner wall of the tank should be smooth to prevent the earthworms from crawling out. Generally, a tank with a diameter of 60cm and a height of 45cm is better. For the first breeding, because the number is small, it is generally suitable to use a tank.

<strong>Feeding pit</strong> (pond):

Generally, it is built in the corner of the wall inside the house, and does not occupy the main site. The pit can be large or small, one square foot, two square feet, or three square feet. The longest one can be 10 to 15 feet or longer, and the width is 2 feet. The pit is divided into grids. Regardless of the size of the pit, the depth is about 0.8 feet. The bottom of the pit should be rammed flat and solid. The surroundings of the pit are built with bricks, 1 foot above the ground, and the total height is 1.8 feet. The inside and outside of the pit are brushed with lime or cement, and it is required to be flat and smooth. The pit surface should be covered.

<strong>Underground Passage</strong>:

An underground tunnel is a solution to the problem of breeding sites. That is, use the underground of the house to dig a 0.8-foot-deep tunnel. The bottom of the pit should also be tamped and solid. The surrounding area should be built with bricks. The inner wall should be smooth. The length can be determined according to the needs or the size of the house, and the width can be determined according to the width of the installed cover. Every other fixed cover, make a movable floor about 1 foot wide for feeding and inspection. The underground tunnel can also be divided into compartments for breeding. Take away the movable board before going to bed every night to let the earthworms come in and out freely. Such an underground tunnel can still be walked in the west during the day. In order to prevent predators such as rats and ants, the large and small holes in the door gaps around the house should be tightly blocked.

Earthworm

Feeding cabinet:

Like a multi-layer rabbit cage, the multi-layer (2 to 6 layers, etc.) three-dimensional shape is cabinet-like, so it is called a feeding cabinet. This is the best way to make full use of the indoor space area, carry out large-scale breeding, and solve the problem of breeding site difficulties. Build a multi-layer feeding cabinet near the wall in the room. Except for one side near the wall, the other three sides or the bottom of each layer can be built into a rectangle with thin cement boards or bricks. The plane area is 3 to 10 square feet, which can be built into 4 to 8 layers. Each layer is 6 to 8 inches high. Each layer can also be divided into several small grids, and each grid must have a movable door for feeding and ventilation. Breeding practice has proved that the average temperature of the multi-layer feeding cabinet is higher than that of the breeding pit, so the food intake of the earthworm is significantly increased, and the growth and development is also significantly accelerated. Therefore, the time required for the earthworm to complete a generation from egg to larva to adult in the multi-layer feeding cabinet can be greatly shortened compared with the general pit breeding, and the annual output is also significantly increased.

Bee and turtle joint breeding device:

In the process of raising ground beetles, if the appropriate temperature and humidity can be controlled, the reproduction can be accelerated and the yield can be increased. For this reason, according to the requirement that the optimum temperature for the breeding of ground beetles is 25-350°C and the relative humidity is 70%, the favorable conditions of normal temperature (34-35°C) and relative humidity of about 80% in the beehive can be used to prepare a beetle breeding device and carry out joint breeding in the beehive. There are bottle-type incubators, frame-type feeders, and super-box feeders.

Bottle incubator:

Use a wide-mouth bottle with a height of 23cm and a diameter of 16cm (the size should be based on the size that can fit into the beehive), and make some air holes on the bottle cap. It is mainly used for egg sheath hatching. Put a layer of loose soil with appropriate humidity at the bottom of the bottle, put the unhatched egg sheath picked out from the breeding pool into the bottle, and mix it with the loose soil. Add a small amount of feed on the soil surface, check once a week to observe the hatching situation, take out the hatched nymphs, and place them in a separate feeder for breeding.

Frame feeder:

Made of thin wood, the shape is the same as the frame feeder for raising bees. It is generally 24cm high, 48cm long and 16cm wide. In order to prevent the beetles from crawling out, a wire mesh cover can be added. It is mainly used for female turtles to lay eggs. Take the female turtles out of the breeding pool together with the breeding soil, put them into the feeder, and add appropriate amount of feed. The feeder should be separated from the beehive by a partition. Check it twice a week to observe the egg-laying situation, and add feed and water to encourage the female turtles to lay eggs.

Relay feeder:

It can be modified from a beekeeping super, 46.5cm long, 38cm wide, 58cm high, or a nest box. A thin wooden board should be nailed to the bottom of the super (it is best to use a metal plate that is easy to transfer heat and then lay a bamboo curtain). It is mainly used to raise nymphs, and can also be used to raise female turtles and egg sheaths. The super has a large capacity and is easy to manage. It can be raised on a large scale, but it must be used when the beehive is full and in the first honey flow period in early spring, when the outside temperature rises. For large-scale breeding, the super can be increased to expand the capacity. The practice of joint breeding of bees and turtles has proved that there must be at least 5 frames of bees in the beehive to achieve the purpose of joint breeding and temperature increase. In this way, the reproductive period of the earthworm can be shortened, that is, the completion of a generation can be shortened from the original three years to about two years, and the egg-laying period can be advanced from the original May and June to March and April. The survival rate is significantly improved, the reproduction rate is much higher than that in the natural environment, and the development speed is greatly accelerated, and there is no adverse effect on the reproduction and production of bees.

Earthworm

Feeding soil:

The quality of the soil for feeding directly affects the adult of the ground beetle, and is also closely related to its growth and development. If the choice of soil for feeding is not appropriate, the insects may get sick or attract enemies such as mites. Therefore, when choosing what kind of soil to use for feeding, what season to use, and how high the temperature of the soil should be, these are all basic conditions that must be considered. Generally, it is best to choose moist, soft, fertile soil with more humus as the feeding soil, such as garden soil, etc. This kind of soil is convenient for ground beetles to drill into the soil and drill out of the soil surface for feeding activities. Local areas can also choose according to the specific local soil conditions. Some provinces such as Shandong and Jiangsu use sandy soil or yellow clay as feeding soil. Strongly sticky soil is easy to clump, which reduces the range of the ground beetle's residence. At the same time, it will stick to the insect body, affecting crawling and development, so it is not suitable for use. Generally, it is better to take soil in winter, when there are fewer diseases, insects, and bacteria in the soil, which can reduce the damage to the ground beetle. When taking soil, you can first turn over and break the soil layer, expose it to the sun for disinfection, and then use a sieve with a mesh size of 0.08X0.08 inches to sieve out soil lumps and debris. The moisture content of the breeding soil is generally 15-20%, which is suitable when it cannot be lumped by hand. At the same time, the humidity of the soil should also be different according to the solar terms, insect types, and equipment. Generally, it is slightly dry in winter and the rainy season, slightly moist in summer and autumn, slightly dry for small insects, slightly moist for large insects, slightly dry for breeding pits, slightly moist for the upper grids of breeding tanks and breeding cabinets, and slightly dry for storing egg sheaths. When the breeding soil is found to be too wet or too dry, pay attention to find out the reasons and adjust it in time. When it is too dry, you can spray a small amount of water in the breeding soil or increase the amount of green feed. If it is too wet, you can open the window for ventilation to dissipate moisture or reduce the amount of green feed, etc. These are effective measures to adjust the humidity of the breeding soil. The thickness of the breeding soil is closely related to the age of the insects and the number of insects. Insects above the 9th instar, including adults, can drill to a depth of 30 cm. Nymphs move at a depth of about 6 cm. If the number of nymphs is high, the thickness of the breeding soil should be thicker, otherwise it should be thinner. In order to make the breeding soil loose and fertile, you can also add an appropriate amount of rice husks, sawdust or fermented horse and cow dung, as well as bean shells, river mud, etc. to the breeding soil. But be careful not to use sewer mud or soil that has been treated with ammonia, pesticides, or alkaline soil for breeding.

Earthworm

Feed: Since the earthworm is an omnivorous insect, there are many types of feed for it, which can be divided into three categories: Concentrated feed: mainly the leftovers from grain and oil processing. Such as wheat bran, rice bran, sesame cake, bean cake, cottonseed cake, tofu dregs, flour residue (dried), etc., which can generally be fed raw. They prefer to eat them after being fried with fragrance, but do not fry them to be burnt. Green feed: mainly fruits, vegetables, leaves, grass roots, such as the skin and pulp of cucumber, winter melon and pumpkin, fruit branches and peels of pear, persimmon, peach, plum, orange, etc., sweet potato, sesame, castor, broad bean, pea, astragalus, cotton, green vegetables, cabbage, wild rice stem, lettuce, amaranth, cabbage leaves, and leaves of mulberry, poplar, willow, paulownia, fig, etc. can be fed, but be careful to keep them fresh and clean. Animal feed: such as the leftovers of pigs, cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, fish, etc. in the canteen and at home, which are generally fed cooked food. Harvesting and processing

Edible earthworms

Timely harvesting and processing are the final steps to increase the yield per unit area. The objects of harvesting are three types: old male larvae, female larvae and female adults. The harvesting time can be carried out according to the development and growth characteristics of the earthworm. Male nymphs can be harvested in combination with emasculation, and female nymphs are the main objects of harvesting. During the growth and development of the earthworm, the weight gain is the highest at the age of 8 to 10. At this stage, the insect body is full and the dry rate is 38-41%, while the dry rate of male and female nymphs is only 30-33%. Therefore, when the stocking density reaches a certain number during this period, in addition to leaving enough worms for egg-laying, they should be harvested in large quantities. Female worms can be harvested twice. Before mid-August, because the egg sheaths laid can hatch in the same year, we should try our best to get the number of eggs, so it is not suitable to harvest in batches. For female adults that have passed the peak egg-laying period, the insect body begins to age and can be selected and collected in combination with egg collection; after mid-August and before wintering, all female adults that have laid eggs in the previous year should be harvested in order of egg-laying batches to avoid large-scale death due to old age and weakness during the wintering. Processing generally uses two methods: sun drying and drying. The sun-drying method is relatively simple. The harvested insects are scalded to death with boiling water, washed, and exposed to the sun for 3 to 4 days until they are dry and free of impurities. The drying method is to put the washed insects in an oven to dry or put them in a pot and stir-fry them over low heat. The temperature is controlled at about 50°C. When the toes of the insects are slightly sticky to the spatula, the fire is stopped. The insects are placed in a wire mesh slightly larger than the pot, the frying pan is removed, and the mesh is placed on the stove. The residual heat in the stove chamber is used to dry the insects. The commercial earthworms are then obtained. Due to the different collection seasons, insect ages, and the degree of strength and thinness, the fresh-to-dry conversion rate has certain differences. According to the measurement and statistics, the largest female adult weighs 0.5 kg with 1400; the dried male adult weighs 0.5 kg with 1,400. The fresh-to-dry conversion rate of earthworms is the largest female insect 37%, young female insects 38%, old female insects 41%, and 8-year-old male nymphs 38%.

During the artificial breeding of earthworms, the management of egg-laying insects is relatively strict, and the breeding density should be sparse, generally not more than 5,000 per square meter. Egg-laying insects not only require high humidity, but also require fresher air in the shed, and the suitable temperature is 25-26℃. The feed requires rich nutrition, and animal feed should be increased, and the proportion of green feed should be increased to adjust the situation and save water. The thickness of the breeding soil should be increased, generally about 15cm. The humidity of the breeding soil for egg-laying insects should be based on the ability to pass through a 4mm sieve without forming a lump.