CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How many square meters of soil are needed for a greenhouse to raise grasshoppers? (How many square meters of soil are needed for a greenhouse to raise grasshoppers?)

1. What are some basic requirements and techniques for raising grasshoppers?

1. Site selection

It is best to choose a place with good ventilation and plenty of sunlight.

2. Eliminate natural enemies

Before building a shed, you should first use methods such as capturing, trapping, and scalding to eliminate all ants, mole crickets, etc. on the ground. Because the above animals are the natural enemies of locusts, they can prey on locusts and destroy locust eggs, so these animals must not be allowed to exist in the shed.

3. Ground

The floor of the shed should be 10-15 cm higher than the surrounding ground to facilitate drainage in the rainy season. Sandy loam is the best soil, which is not easy to clump and is convenient for laying eggs and collecting eggs. The soil should not be too soft, as locusts have high requirements for laying eggs.

4. Density

The area of ​​the shed depends on the number of locusts, and generally 600-800 adult locusts can be raised per square meter.

5. Build a shed

According to your own conditions, you can use sticks and bamboo strips to build a shed frame. Then, according to the size of the shed, use gauze to make a shed cover like a mosquito net, hang it on the shed, bury the bottom edge in the ground, leave a door, and press a zipper on the door. This is to prevent locusts from escaping and facilitate feeding and management in the shed.

The height of the shed can be 1.5-2 meters. In order to keep warm or prevent rain, plastic sheets can be covered outside the shed. When the temperature is high and the locusts are large (more than three instars), they are not afraid of rain, so plastic sheets can be omitted. If natural conditions are used to breed migratory locusts, the construction of the shed must be completed before the end of April.

Grasshopper habits:

1. Incubation

The minimum temperature for hatching eggs is 17 degrees Celsius, the suitable temperature for development is between 26-32 degrees Celsius, and the highest hatching rate is when the soil moisture content is 18-22%. It usually takes 50-60 minutes for the entire egg mass to hatch from the beginning to the end, and the maximum hatching time is from 8 am to 1 pm. There are also differences in the order of emergence during the hatching process.

2. Shedding

Grasshoppers grow by molting. When they grow to a certain length and need to molt, they stop eating. Hang their bodies upside down and molt (with something to attach to). You can eat them after one hour. Locust larvae molt once every 5-7 days after they lay eggs. Strong ones molt quickly, while weak ones molt slowly. One molt is one age. From hatching to adulthood, they need to molt five times before they can become adults.

3. Social nature

First-instar nymphs often gather on plants, while second-instar nymphs prefer to gather on bare ground. The older they are, the more obvious their aggregation becomes. At first, they are small groups, but later they become large groups, crowded and overlapping with each other, and even piled up to several inches high.

4. Migration

Grasshoppers migrate not only for food, but also for the needs of reproductive physiological development. Migration can increase appetite, especially migration from eclosion to egg laying, which can increase the number and quality of eggs. Therefore, locusts should be properly disturbed after egg laying and before egg laying, so that they can fly in the shed to increase the number and quality of eggs.

2. How to raise flower-legged grasshoppers?

1. Breeding site

Flower-legged grasshoppers like dry and sunny weather, and are usually raised in greenhouses. Therefore, the breeding site should be far away from farmland and in a sunny and ventilated place. The floor of the greenhouse should be 10-15 cm higher than the surrounding ground. Wooden sticks are used as supports, and the height of the greenhouse is 1.5-2 meters. Gauze is used as a canopy to hang down to the ground for sealing. Plastic sheets are covered outside the canopy to keep warm and prevent rain. Sandy loam is spread on the ground, and crops such as corn and wheat are planted to create an ecological breeding environment.

2. Breeding and hatching

After the flower-legged grasshoppers enter the field, they begin to mate and lay eggs. There should be a separate small pond for the breeding eggs. Fine soil is sprinkled on the ground, and the breeding eggs are placed on it, covered with sawdust. The incubation temperature is about 25 degrees. Water is sprayed every two or three days to keep it moist. The young locusts begin to shed their skin six days after hatching. When the flower-legged grasshoppers have successfully shed their skin five times, they are mature and can be harvested.

3. Feeding and management

The main food of flower-legged grasshoppers is tender grass, corn, wheat, millet and other plants. Therefore, the breeding cost is not high. The main thing is to feed small grasshoppers. They have a small appetite for millet porridge, so they should be fed with fresh corn seedlings, wheat seedlings, and tender grass. They should be fed at regular times and multiple times. Once you forget, it will cause the tragedy of cannibalism.

4. Daily management

As a pest, flower-legged grasshoppers may bite through the gauze and escape when they reach a certain number, so it is necessary to have measures such as indoor sprayers and outdoor insecticide isolation belts. Once they are found escaping, they must be killed in time. In some breeding sheds, ants and mole crickets will compete with flower-legged grasshoppers for feed. Once found, it is recommended to scald the ants to death with boiling water, and mole crickets are photophilic, so they can be killed at night using light sources.

3. How to breed yellow worms?

(I) The process of pupae emerging from adults takes about 3-7 days. The head, chest, legs, and wings emerge first, and the abdomen and tail emerge later. Because the pupae are selected for emergence at the same time, they can all be completely emerged within a few days. The newly emerged adults are very tender and not very active. After about 5 days, the body color becomes darker and the elytra become hard. Male and female adults usually gather in the dark when mating, and the mating time is relatively long. When laying eggs, the tail of the female insect is inserted into the sieve hole to lay eggs. It is best not to stir it at will during this period. When a layer of eggs is found attached to the bottom of the sieve plate, the plate can be changed. At this time, the adult insects are screened and placed in another plate containing feed, and the dead insects are removed. The egg plate is changed every 5-7 days. The survival period of adults is about 50 days. Adults in the egg-laying period need a lot of nutrition and water, so wheat bran and vegetables must be added in time, and fish meal can also be added. If the nutrition is insufficient, the adults will bite and kill each other, causing losses.

(ii) Egg stage adults lay eggs in a wooden tray containing feed. Replace the wooden tray with eggs and put it on the shelf. Larvae will hatch naturally. Pay attention to observation and do not turn it over to avoid damaging the eggs or the hatching larvae. When larval skin appears on the surface of the feed, the first instar worm has been born.

(III) Larval stage The period from egg hatching to larvae and before pupation is called the larval stage, and larvae of all ages are the best feed for Chinese forest frogs.

The tray where the adults lay eggs, after 7-9 days of hatching, when the molted body is more than 0.5 cm long, add wheat bran and fresh vegetables. Put 1 kg of larvae in each wooden tray. The density should not be too large to prevent the larvae from biting and killing each other due to insufficient feed and squeezing. As the larvae grow up, separate the trays in time.

Wheat bran is the main feed for larvae and also their habitat. Therefore, the feed should be kept at a natural temperature. Under normal circumstances, when the temperature is high, the larvae are mostly active on the surface of the feed, and when the temperature is low, they burrow into the lower layer to live. The thickness of the feed in the wooden tray should be within 5 cm. When the feed gradually decreases, use a sieve to sift out the insect feces and add new feed. When sieving feces for 1-2 instar larvae, a 60-mesh sieve should be used to prevent the larvae from leaking through the sieve holes. Prepare a wooden tray for the new feed first, and put the sieved clean larvae on the wooden tray while sieving.

Mealworm larvae need to break through the outer skin (shedding) to grow, and they can only grow up after molting again and again. During the larval stage, they molt 7 times. Each time they molt, the worm grows bigger and the larva grows one year old. They molt once every 9 days on average. When the larvae molt, the epidermis first splits from the thoracic and dorsal seams, and the head, thorax, feet, and then the abdomen and tail gradually molt out. Larvae usually molt on the surface of the feed, and after molting, they drill into the feed. The larvae that have just molted are milky white and have a delicate epidermis.

(IV) Larvae in the pupal stage pupate on the surface of the feed. Before pupation, the larvae crawl to the surface of the feed, lie still, and then slowly expand and contract. During the last molting, the larvae pupate. The pupation can be completed within a few seconds. The newly formed pupa is white-yellow, with a slightly longer body and wriggling abdominal segments. Gradually, the body shortens and turns dark yellow.

There are differences between individual larvae, which are reflected in the time of pupation and the strength of individual abilities. Pupae that have just emerged from the pupae and larvae living in the same wooden tray are prone to being bitten by the larvae in the chest and abdomen, and their internal organs are eaten, leaving them empty.

4. What are the planting techniques of locust grass?

1. Site selection

Locusts are very strong, so it is easy to choose a breeding site for locusts, but it is best to be far away from crop planting areas. Locusts are very timid and will flee or even go on a hunger strike when disturbed. Therefore, places near roads should not be used as breeding sites.

2. Hatching management

Gently scatter locust eggs on the ground and cover them with fine soil. The temperature in the breeding greenhouse should be kept between 25-30 degrees. At the same time, fluorescent lamps should be used to keep the lighting time at 12 hours a day. In this way, the eggs will hatch after 2 weeks.

3. Feed management

Locusts need to be fed with grass. If conditions permit, you can grow grass yourself. Generally speaking, to raise one acre of locusts, you need to plant two acres of grass. You can choose Mexican corn grass, sorghum, etc. If you want the locusts to grow fast and fat, you also need to use corn, wheat, sorghum and other grain feed.

4. Adult management

It takes 4 weeks for locusts to grow from larvae to adults. After that, they will mate and lay eggs. And during the egg-laying period, the food intake should be controlled, so that the egg-laying rate will be increased. Farmers who have information about buying or selling locusts can post it to the Yunzhongyang platform. It is an integrated agricultural service platform where all kinds of agricultural product information can be released to help farmers sell more agricultural products.

5. Suspension measures

Since locusts are agricultural pests, after stopping breeding, we cannot just dismantle the greenhouse. Instead, we need to thoroughly remove them and kill all the eggs to avoid harming surrounding crops.

5. Can grasshopper sheds be built on the contracted farmland in the village?

Strictly speaking, you need to apply to the relevant departments for a change of use. Farmland should only be used for planting, and other uses are not allowed. However, many places in rural areas are not so strict. In order to save trouble in the future, it is better to take the formal route.

6. What temperature is needed to raise grasshoppers?

The suitable growth temperature for grasshoppers is 25℃-32℃, relative humidity is 85%-92%, and soil moisture content is 15%-18%. When the temperature is lower than 14℃ or higher than 40℃, grasshoppers will gradually stop eating and die.

When the temperature reaches 28℃-30℃, ant eggs begin to hatch. First prepare non-toxic soil and sawdust powder in a ratio of 1:2 with a water content of 20%-30%. Spread 3 cm to 5 cm of soil in a container and pat it down. Then spread the ant eggs on the soil and cover it with about 1 cm thick mixed soil.