CATDOLL : CATDOLL: What soil do you need to raise snails?

1. What are the requirements for snail breeding sites?

Soil environment: Snails like to burrow into humus soil to live and lay eggs, so it is recommended to use nutrient soil rich in humus.

Temperature conditions: The suitable temperature conditions for snail farming are between 16-30 degrees Celsius, avoiding temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius or below 5 degrees Celsius.

Moist and dark: Snails hide during the day and come out at night. They are afraid of direct sunlight, so a moist breeding environment is required.

2. Should the soil for raising snails be loose or tight?

It is best to use moist, loose, humus-rich soil for snails, and to prevent the soil from hardening, it is best to replace it once every six months or a year.

3. What do pet snails eat? How to keep them?

It is better to use a larger box, because a 6-8 cm thick breeding soil needs to be placed in the box as a habitat for snails. The breeding soil can be made of garden soil, sand, yellow sand, cinder ash, and stone powder. Mix them in a ratio of 3:3:2:1:5:0.5, expose them to the sun for several days for disinfection, then add water and the humidity reaches 40%. However, it needs to be replaced once after 1-2 months of breeding. It is advisable to start breeding from young snails. For 1-month-old young snails, fresh cucumbers, apples, tender cabbage, and green leaves can be fed once a day. The temperature should be controlled at 25-30 degrees, and the feeding amount is about 1/10 of the snail's body weight. In winter, the temperature drops, the breeding soil should be appropriately thickened, and a thicker layer of fallen leaves and cotton wool should be placed in the box for insulation. When the temperature drops to about 10 degrees, air conditioning or light bulbs should be used to keep warm around the box, but the light bulbs should be wrapped with black cloth to prevent strong light exposure. If you use a coal stove indoors, you need to move the breeding box to another place. Do not allow carbon monoxide to fumigate, otherwise the snails will be poisoned. Keep the box clean and hygienic. Remove any remaining food, feces and other dirt every day, and wash the food bowl. The top of the box should be covered with a wire mesh lid to provide adequate ventilation. It should also be protected from natural enemies such as rats and mosquitoes, especially its biggest natural enemy, mites. The breeding environment should be disinfected with diluted peracetic acid every week. Snails need moisture the most and are most afraid of dryness. If the box is relatively dry, it is important to spray water inside the box.

4. Can white jade snails be raised in coconut bricks?

Coconut bricks are not good. It is best to use humus soil, followed by pure soil, and feed fine eggshell powder every day.

Feeding soil is an essential material for breeding snails. Feeding soil should be rich in humus, loose in texture, and pesticide-free. You can choose sandy garden soil that is relatively rich in humus and loose. Be careful not to use garden soil with ant activity or that has just been fertilized with fertilizers and pesticides as feeding soil. The feeding soil to be used is best exposed to the sun and treated with insecticides and sterilization.

5. What are the methods and techniques for breeding land snails?

1. Suitable environment. In the process of raising snails, mix leaf mold, peat soil and fine sand to prepare the soil, and place the breeding container in a cool and ventilated place, keep the temperature at around 23 degrees, and the air humidity at 60 to 70 percent. Pay attention to the snails raised in the open air, and take shading measures for them.

2. Feeding. Snails are omnivorous and partial eaters. During the breeding process, they can be fed with various vegetable leaves, fruit peels, wheat flour, white beans and other foods, and the types of food should be changed regularly. Do not feed a single food to avoid poor growth of snails. In addition, irritating foods should not be fed to snails.

3. Daily maintenance. When raising snails, you must ensure that the breeding environment is clean and sanitary to prevent bacteria from growing, which is not conducive to the growth and health of the snails. Usually, you should clean the box every three to four days to remove food residues, snail feces, etc. in the box. Note that leaves and branches need to be placed in the box to provide a place for the snails to crawl and play.

6. Where to artificially breed snails?

1. The breeding site of snails can be planned and designed according to the scale of breeding. Large-scale breeding can adopt indoor breeding, field breeding, shed breeding, soil ditch breeding and other methods, while small-scale breeding can adopt tank breeding, wooden box breeding, courtyard breeding, balcony breeding and other methods. Regardless of which breeding method is used, the breeding site must be set up and planned according to the characteristics of snails, but the snails must be placed in a quiet, dark, humid, warm and vibration-free environment.

2. You can use farmland to breed snails. First, plow the soil and then fine it. Plant some broad-leaved trees around the farmland to provide shade. Be sure to use nets around it to effectively prevent snails from escaping. You can also use the roof of a flat-roofed house for breeding. Put a layer of loose soil more than 10 cm thick on the roof, and plant a few grapes around it to build a trellis for shade. Use nets around it. The advantages of open-air breeding are fresh air, good humidity, fast growth of snails, and mild disease. But be careful. When the weather is dry, you must sprinkle water in time to keep the soil moist.

3. You can also choose to breed snails in plastic greenhouses. First, choose an open space of 30 meters long and 6 meters wide, plow the soil once, build a 30cm high wall around it, and then build a plastic greenhouse. After the greenhouse is built, level the plowed soil in the greenhouse and you can breed. The advantage of breeding in plastic greenhouses is that it is easy to adjust the temperature and prevent natural enemies, but you should pay attention to adding sunshade facilities in the hot season to keep the soil moist and the air properly convective.

2. What soil should be used for breeding snails?

1. To breed snails, you must use moist, loose, humus-rich soil, and in order to prevent the soil from hardening, you should replace it about once every six months or a year. At the same time, the soil humidity should be kept at 15%-18%, and must not exceed 21%. You can also mix farmland soil, sandy soil, yellow sand, cinder ash, and stone powder in a ratio of 3:2:1:5:0.5 to make breeding soil, then expose it to the sun for a few days for disinfection, and finally add appropriate amount of water to make the soil humidity reach 40%.

2. Snails prefer to live in a dark, humid, loose and humus-rich environment. They are afraid of direct sunlight and are sensitive to the environment. They usually hide in caves during the day and come out to look for food at night. Snails will live in the soil, lay eggs, regulate body humidity and absorb some nutrients. The suitable growth temperature is 23-30°C. When the temperature is below 15°C, they will enter hibernation.

3. Snails have a particularly strong ability to survive and have a strong tolerance to cold, heat, hunger and drought. They have a wide range of diets, including all kinds of vegetables, weeds, melon and fruit peels, crop stems and leaves, flowers, juicy fruits, etc. You can feed them tender leaves, weeds, melon and fruit peels, crop stems and leaves, various green grass and highland barley feeds, etc., and feed them three times a day.

7. How to choose and process the soil for snail breeding?

Snails, like other terrestrial mollusks, have the habit of living, laying eggs and hatching in the soil. They are also soil animals and like to eat humus and suck water in the soil, especially young snails. Therefore, when breeding snails artificially, the disinfection and laying thickness of the soil for snail breeding are particularly important.

Disinfection of breeding soil

(1) High temperature treatment

① Sunlight disinfection: Place the prepared breeding soil on a clean cement floor, wooden board, iron sheet or plastic film, spread a thin layer, and expose it to the sun for 3 to 15 days to kill a large number of pathogen spores, hyphae, pest eggs, pests, nematodes, etc.

②Steam sterilization: There are two methods: steam sterilization and sterilization cabinet sterilization.

Steaming sterilization: Put the breeding soil in the steamer and heat it to 60-100℃ for 30-60 minutes.

Disinfection in a disinfection cabinet: Convert a large gasoline barrel or box with a lid into a steam disinfection cabinet, insert a pipe through its wall, and connect it to a steam furnace (heating boiler, etc.). Then put the breeding soil into the cabinet (barrel), open the air inlet valve, and let the steam enter the gap between the soil layers (be careful not to seal the lid too tightly to prevent explosion). After 30 minutes, most bacteria, fungi, nematodes and insects can be killed, and most weed seeds can lose their vitality.

③Boiling disinfection: Pour the breeding soil into the pot, add water and boil for 30 to 60 minutes, then filter out the water and let it dry until the temperature reaches a suitable level.

④Boiling water disinfection: Pour the breeding soil into an iron bucket, fill it with 100℃ boiling water until the soil is submerged, then cover and seal it overnight to kill ants, centipedes, eggs of miscellaneous insects, germs in the soil, and destroy residual pesticides. The next day, pour out the soil in the bucket, filter the water, crush it, dry it, and place it in the breeding box or pool.

⑤ Fire burning (frying) disinfection: Put the breeding soil in an iron pot or iron plate and burn it with fire. After the soil particles become dry, burn it for another 0.5 to 2 hours. This can completely kill the bacteria and pests in the soil.

(2) Chemical treatment

①Formaldehyde (Formalin): There are 3 treatment methods.

Treatment 1: Sprinkle 40% formaldehyde (400-500 ml) diluted with 50 times water evenly on each square meter of the breeding soil, then pile up the soil, cover with plastic film, and seal for 24-48 hours. Remove the covering, spread the soil, and wait until the formaldehyde gas is completely volatilized.

Treatment 2: Spray the breeding soil with 0.5% formaldehyde, mix well and pile it up, seal it with plastic film for 5 to 7 days, then peel off the film to allow the smell of the medicine to evaporate.

Treatment 3: Sand and gravel breeding soil can be directly soaked in 50-100 times formaldehyde solution for 2-4 hours. After draining the liquid, rinse it with clean water 2-3 times.

②Sulfur powder: There are 2 processing methods.

Treatment 1: Apply 80-90 grams of sulfur powder per square meter of breeding soil and mix well.

Treatment 2: Sprinkle 25-30 grams per square meter on the plowed land and turn the land to kill the bacteria.

③ Lime powder: Use lime powder to disinfect the breeding soil, which can kill insects and sterilize, and also neutralize the acidity of the soil. There are two treatment methods.

Treatment 1: Apply 90-120 grams of lime powder per square meter of breeding soil and mix thoroughly.

Treatment 2: Sprinkle lime powder at a dosage of 30 to 40 grams per square meter on the plowed land for disinfection.

④ Carbendazim: Apply 40g of 50% carbendazim powder per square meter of breeding soil, mix well and cover with film for 2 to 3 days. After removing the film, wait for the smell of the medicine to evaporate.

⑤ Mancozeb: Apply 60g of 65% Mancozeb powder per square meter of breeding soil, mix well and cover with plastic film for 2 to 3 days. After removing the film, wait for the smell of the medicine to evaporate.

⑥ Chloropicrin: stack the breeding soil or substrate layer by layer, 20 to 30 cm per layer, evenly spread 50 ml of chloropicrin per square meter per layer, and stack up to 3 to 4 layers. After quickly stacking, cover with plastic film and seal. Keep it for 10 days when the temperature is above 20℃, and keep it for 15 days when the temperature is above 15℃, then remove the film and turn it over several times to fully disperse the chloropicrin.

⑦N-methylnaphthalene and methylamine mixture: Apply 5% N-methylnaphthalene and methylamine, 6% snail ester, 5% diazinon and 3% marathon mixture to the breeding soil and mix well. It can kill ants, centipedes, ground beetles, burying beetles and mold in the soil.

⑧Phoxim: When underground pests in the soil of the snail breeding area are seriously harmful, you can use 0.1 kg of 50% phoxim and add 10 kg of bait to make poison bait, and spread it on the breeding ground to lure and kill the snails.

⑨ Trichlorfon: When underground pests in the soil of the snail breeding area are seriously harmful, you can use 0.5 kg of 90% trichlorfon crystals and add 50 kg of bait to make poison bait, and spread it on the breeding ground to lure and kill the snails.

⑩Others: Lime chloride, methyl bromide, benomyl, etc. can also be used for soil disinfection.

Note: Wear a mask and gloves when performing drug disinfection to prevent the drug from being inhaled into the mouth and contacting the skin. Rinse your mouth after work and wash your hands and face carefully with soap.

(3) Equipment processing

① Microwave disinfection machine: Use a microwave disinfection machine consisting of a 30-kilowatt high-wave radiation device and a microwave radiation plate to disinfect the breeding soil.

② Flame soil disinfection machine: This machine uses gasoline as fuel to heat the soil, which can make the soil temperature reach 79-87°C, which can kill various pathogenic microorganisms and pests.