CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How to breed cicadas

Cicadas are commonly called cicadas. Cicadas are holometabolous insects. Their life cycle can be divided into three stages: egg, nymph and adult. It takes three years to complete the entire growth cycle. The nymph stage of cicadas is also called cicada monkey, cicada monkey or cicada turtle. It is rich in nutrients and is not only a traditional Chinese medicine, but also a good snack.

Life characteristics: After mating, female cicadas use needle-shaped ovipositors to pierce the bark on the tender branches of trees and lay eggs in the tender branches. After the branches are pierced, they wither and die due to lack of water supply. After death, they fall under the tree due to the effect of wind and rain, and are gradually buried in the soil. After the eggs hatch into nymphs, they attach to the roots of trees and suck sap for a living. After 2 to 3 years, the nymphs grow and mature. After the summer solstice every year, if it rains thoroughly, they quickly drill out of the ground. About 2 to 4 hours after emerging from the ground, the mature nymphs - cicada monkeys shed their skin and become adults - cicadas. Cicadas still rely on sucking tree sap for food. In the hot summer, they make very noisy calls on the trees.

Egg collection: In sunny weather, female cicadas mostly lay eggs on the branches of the current year of willow and apple trees with lush green leaves, and especially on white willow branches. The branches will wither on their own in 3 to 10 days after laying eggs. If you observe carefully, you will see granular eggs attached to the withered branches. There are about 50 to 100 cicada eggs in one egg branch. If you have the patience to raise cicadas from eggs, then pick the branches with eggs attached and use them as seedlings for hatching.

Planting site: You can plant the branches in the garden, preferably in willow forests, old apple orchards and riverbanks with white willow branches. But not in flower pots. You can plant 2 to 3 egg branches per square meter. The soil should be loose and moist loam without sand and hardening, ants and moles. You can also choose a place where there were many cicada monkeys last year as the site for planting egg branches.

Management: Pay attention to watering, do not turn the soil, and wait slowly...

Harvesting: 2 to 3 years after the egg branches are planted, the cicada monkeys begin to grow and mature gradually. At the summer solstice every year, they drill to a place about 10 cm from the ground surface, waiting for the right time to drill out of the ground. If there is a heavy rain, the fat and strong cicada monkeys will start to drill out of the ground at 4 to 5 o'clock in the morning, or after the rain, the cicada monkeys will drill out of the ground at any time. After drilling out of the ground, they will quickly find willow branches or tree trunks to crawl up and prepare to shed their shells in a suitable position. After 2 to 4 hours, they will shed their skin and become cicadas (cicadas). According to this characteristic of cicada monkeys, after the summer solstice every year, if there is no rain and drought, the breeding grounds can be artificially irrigated to induce cicada monkeys to emerge from the ground. Before the cicada monkeys emerge from the ground, or before the cicada monkeys mature, a circle of smooth plastic film can be tied around the tree trunk 30 cm above the ground. When the cicada monkeys climb to the plastic film, it will prevent the cicada monkeys from climbing up the tree and becoming cicadas, so that they can be harvested.

Key points: As a "pet", the greatest pleasure of raising a cicada is to watch it come out of the ground and shed its shell. Friends who have not seen it and children living in cities should definitely catch a few cicadas on summer nights and watch them shed their shells.

Adult breeding: It is difficult. It feeds on tree sap. If you want to keep it at home, you can pick fresh branches for it. Or watermelon rind? I think it might work. Another interesting thing is to watch it vibrate the eardrum of the chest to make a sound.