Environment of Centipede Breeding

Artificial breeding of centipede, how to build a centipede breeding pool Centipede, also known as Tianlong, has a high medicinal value and economic value. Currently, there is not much supply of centipede, and artificial breeding of centipede is a way to get rich in rural areas. Artificial centipede breeding in China is mostly less spiny centipede, and the breeding techniques are introduced as follows: I. Construction of Centipede Breeding Ponds Breeding ponds should be built in sunny, ventilated and well ventilated places that are shady and secluded. The breeding pool can be built indoors or outdoors. Breeding pool with brick or stone and other materials, cement surface, pool depth of 80 centimeters is appropriate, the pool wall around the smooth non-destructive plastic film paste, or in the mouth of the pool set a circle of glass and the pool wall at right angles to the eaves, the width of 15 centimeters is appropriate. To prevent centipedes from escaping. Pool by the wall around the dig a wide 10 cm deep 4 cm ditch, in the ditch on the inside and then dig a 30 cm wide, 3 cm deep trough for putting feed. The pool can be planted with weeds and trees, and pile up some stones and tiles for centipedes to live in. The pool should be covered with a layer of grass curtain to keep out the light after releasing the seedlings. The pool should be kept clean, moist, shaded and hygienic

Life Characteristics of Centipede 1.Habitat environment Centipede is afraid of sunlight, day and night, and prefers to live in dark, warm, rain-sheltered and air-circulated places. It likes to live in dark, warm, rain-sheltered and air-circulated places. It has to live in the low mountainous areas with less soil and more right. Although there is distribution in the plains, the number is small.

Centipede is a traditional important animal medicinal herbs, its medicinal properties and uses in Li Shizhen's "Compendium of Materia Medica" and other famous medical literature have a detailed description of the source of the distribution of the provinces south of the Yangtze River, the main production in Hubei, Zhejiang Province, the original animal was identified as a less spiny centipede. It is reported that Zhejiang is mainly produced in Haining and Daishan two production areas in Jiaxing area. Due to the change of production environment, in the past one or two decades, the annual catch in Jiaxing area has decreased from two million to more than ten thousand. In order to proliferate the centipede resources and to develop the artificial cultivation, a small-scale indoor artificial cultivation and island stocking test has been carried out. In Zhoushan area, a survey was conducted on the resources of medicinal centipedes in the wild, analyzing its group structure and its catch. Research on the biological characteristics of centipedes was carried out in centipede trial farms. A large number of observations and studies were made on the amount of eggs laid, egg-laying period, egg-carrying guardian period, egg-eating and re-laying after egg-eating, the pattern of shedding of skins during the growth of centipedes, the life cycle and reproduction cycle, and the dietary habits of the centipedes, etc., which provided a scientific basis for the artificial cultivation of centipedes. In the breeding management technology, we have broken through the technical difficulties such as identification of live male and female, improvement of hatching rate, etc. and accumulated some experiences to overcome the difficulties of mold disease, drying and foodstuffs, etc. Adult centipedes were stocked on Hengle Mountain island twice in 1976 and 1978, and the observation and statistics found that the new centipedes of each generation could grow actively in 1980, and the stocking on the island was successful, and choosing the suitable island for centipede stocking is also one of the directions to develop the breeding. It is also one of the directions to develop the breeding.

(1) Habitat

Centipedes mainly live in the low mountainous areas with little rock and soil, and there are only a small number of centipedes in the plains. After the hibernation every year, when the temperature turns warm, the centipede wakes up from hibernation and starts to come out of the ground, living in the shady and wet weeds or in the rocky ditches. From the mango to the summer solstice, with the gradual increase in temperature, it gradually moved to the cool trenches, cemeteries, field ridges or cracks in the earth, to avoid the heat of the day. In the late fall season, it inhabits the sunny slopes of loose soil or tree holes and roots where it is warmer. In a word, centipedes are afraid of light and shy of light, they hide by day and come out by night, and they like to live in dark, moist, warm and ventilated caves. Therefore, when breeding centipedes artificially, we should try our best to create the living conditions according to their living habits. For example, planting trees and grasses in the feeding ground and placing bricks and tiles are some of the measures taken to meet the centipede's requirements for living environment.

Centipedes usually come out at night to do activities alone. Although it has 8 single eyes, but weak eyesight, especially during the daytime eyesight is very poor. When they are alone, they will go around and avoid each other until their antennae touch each other. In a clear and windless night, 20-23 hours is the peak of their activities. Their activities are characterized by more activities at night and fewer activities during the day; more activities when the temperature is higher than 25℃, fewer activities when it is 10-15℃; fewer activities or even stop activities when it is below 10℃; sultry weather, more activities at night after rain, fewer activities at night when the temperature is low; more activities at night when there is no wind or a light breeze, fewer activities at night when there is a strong wind (the wind is above six levels): activities at night after rain The activity of centipedes is more in the night after rain and less in the night of rainy days. It can be seen that the frequency of centipede's activity is closely related to meteorological factors such as air temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, rainfall and light intensity. Therefore, the artificial breeding of centipedes should pay attention to the influence of the above meteorological factors on its life. At the same time, centipedes have strong drilling ability, so centipedes can smoothly drill through the rocks, soil cans and other gaps, and can perch in some of the crevices.

When centipedes live in too high a density or are disturbed too much, they are prone to kill each other and die. However, under the condition of feeding, with the improvement of living environment and feeding conditions, such as providing enough fresh feed and water, and not increasing the disturbance to its life, even if the breeding density is larger, there is not much effect on its life. Especially the centipedes produced by the same mother live together since they are young, and when they grow up, they are dozens of centipedes that can live together in harmony. Therefore, providing enough fresh feed and water and keeping a quiet environment are the necessary conditions for artificial centipede breeding.

(2) Capture

Generally, it is good to capture centipedes in Qingming Festival. Centipede is an oviparous insect, according to the centipede's habit of living, such as preferring shade, humidity, quietness, and fearing bright light, choose the place where the jungle is sheltered from the sun or the hill is shady to be the capturing site. Place chicken feathers, bones or dead grass and leaves in these places to lure centipedes to roost and spawn, and pick eggs before the Ching Ming Festival. When picking eggs, bring back the soil with twigs and weeds, and put them into the rearing pool or rearing tank to cover and incubate. During the incubation period, we should often gently turn the cover to prevent other pests from invading, in order to ensure that the larvae hatch smoothly and safely.

(3) Feeding Management

1) Feed: Centipede is a typical carnivorous insect, fierce in nature, with its jaws and claws capable of shooting poisonous juices, it can prey on all kinds of small animals much larger than it. Centipedes have a wide range of food sources. From the results of field observation and trial breeding, and the comprehensive experience of raising centipedes around the world, centipede feeds are mainly of the following types: one type is all kinds of insects, such as crickets, locusts, tobacco worms, golden turtles, rice pod worms, cows, hornworms, cicadas, grasshoppers, dragon slugs, spiders, flies, and wasps, etc., adults, nymphs, larvae, and eggs. Another category is invertebrates such as worms, earthworms, snails, clams, etc. and the muscles, bones and internal organs of vertebrates such as frogs, snakes, lizards and scorpions, geckos, sparrows, rats and bats. When the above food source is insufficient, it also eats a small amount of young grass, branch tips, root tips and melons and fruits such as watermelon and cucumber, as well as cooked products such as eggs, milk and bread. In addition, the centipedes bred in Zhejiang Province mainly eat loach, eel, small fish, shrimp and crabs.

Although centipedes have a wide variety of food sources, they require fresh food and do not eat rotten food. Therefore, in artificial breeding, fresh feed should be fed every 2-3 days. Before feeding, the leftover food should be thoroughly removed. Centipedes have a large amount of food at one time and have strong hunger tolerance. When hungry, the amount of food can reach 1/5-3/5 of its own body weight, and when it is full, it will not starve to death even if it is not given food for ten days and half a month. At the same time, centipedes do not tolerate thirst and need to drink water every day. Therefore, water vessels must be placed in the feeding ground and water must be changed regularly to keep the drinking water fresh and clean.

2) Egg laying and hatching: Every year, late spring and early summer is the spawning period of centipedes. Each female centipede generally spawns 20-60 eggs, mostly 40-50, less than 10. Before spawning, the centipede's abdomen is close to the ground and digs a shallow burrow on its own. When laying eggs, the centipede's body curves into an "S" shape, and the eggs are laid in bunches from the reproductive holes in shallow holes dug by the centipede itself. In the absence of external disturbance, it takes 2-3 hours to lay eggs. After spawning, the centipede turns its body sideways and uses its feet to gather the eggs into a ball and hold them in its arms for incubation. The eggs of centipedes are oval in shape, varying in size, generally about 3-3.5mm in diameter, beige in color, translucent, and the egg membrane is elastic.

Centipedes incubate their eggs for a long time, usually 43-50 days. During the incubation process, the external form and internal structure of the eggs are gradually changing with the continuous development of the embryo. After one month, the larvae in the egg will be about 1.2cm in length, and the wriggling of the larvae in the egg membrane will be visible. 35-40 days later, the larvae will be about 1.5cm in length, and will be able to crawl up and down, but will not be able to leave the mother's body. 43-45 days later, the larvae will be about 2.5cm in length, and will be able to leave the mother's body to find food. Throughout the incubation period, the mother has long been stored enough nutrients, do not have to give food, otherwise it is easy to cause eggs or larvae contaminated by food and eaten by the mother, affecting the hatch rate and larval survival rate.

During the incubation period, the mother never leaves the egg mass or larvae, carefully incubating and guarding. From time to time with the tentacles swinging left and right body to drive close to the other small insects, and often use the claws to fiddle with or suck and lick the egg mass or larvae. It is observed that this is the liquid secreted by the basal or oral glands of the mother's claws to clean the egg masses or larvae to prevent them from being contaminated by bacteria and other dirt.

When centipedes are disturbed by the outside world during egg-laying or incubation, they will stop laying eggs and eat all the eggs that have been produced or incubated, which is called the "protective" reaction of centipedes. This is called the "protective" reaction of the centipede. After the centipede eats the eggs, it will be able to lay and hatch the eggs again. However, the spawning and hatching periods of centipedes are greatly delayed, and fewer eggs are spawned and the hatching rate is not high, which affects the production and quality of centipedes. Therefore, in artificial breeding of centipedes, during the period of centipede spawning and hatching, the surrounding environment should be kept quiet and never disturbed, which is a matter that must be paid attention to in breeding management.

3) Molting and growth and development: Centipedes are crustacean arthropods, the body surface is covered with chitinous armor, which restricts its own further growth and development. In order to get rid of the limitation of further growth and development of the shell, so in the process of growth and development to molt several times. Each time it molts, it grows significantly larger. In the embryonic development to molt three times, the adult body is generally molted once a year, the individual molted twice.

Molting is mostly carried out in high summer or after spawning. Before the molt, the body color changes, slow action, do not eat food, vision and tentacle ability is weakened. Molting, from the front to the back section by section, and finally molt out of the caudal foot. The molted old skin is wrinkled, and when it is straightened out, it is a complete centipede carapace. It takes about 2 hours to complete the molt. Do not disturb the centipede during molt, otherwise it will prolong the molt time. Artificial centipedes should also prevent swarms of ants from attacking it when it molts, otherwise it will be easily bitten by the ants.

The development of centipede is slow, from the first year of hatching to the hibernation before the body length is only about 3.3-3.9cm, and in the second year, under the condition of sufficient food, the body length is also only about 4.9-6.6cm. Therefore, it generally takes 3-4 years for centipedes to develop from larvae to adult sexual maturity. The speed of growth and development has a lot to do with the adequacy of food and the length of feeding time. In artificial breeding, it is found that centipedes produced in the same year grow and develop faster in indoor breeding than in natural stocking. Therefore, supplying sufficient fresh feed is one of the important conditions to increase its output.

4) Winterization: Centipede is a thermophile, and the change of outside temperature has great influence on its life. The cold winter threatens its life. In order to escape from the threat of cold winter, it burrows into the ground and hibernates to overwinter. During hibernation, it does not eat or move, and its body is in the shape of "S" or "L". The depth of the hibernation layer is directly related to the temperature of the air and soil. The lower the air and soil temperatures, the deeper the depth of drilling into the soil layer; the higher the air and soil temperatures, the shallower the depth of drilling into the soil layer. In general air temperature, soil temperature conditions, more in the soil layer 15-40cm hibernation; air temperature, soil temperature is low, can be in the soil layer 80 a 100cm hibernation. If the soil temperature increases, not only can delay the hibernation time, but also in the shallow soil layer or soil surface hibernation. It can be seen that the temperature of the soil is the key to affect the length of hibernation time and the depth of the soil layer in which the centipede hibernates. Therefore, in the breeding, artificially raising the soil temperature of the hibernation place can not only shorten the time of hibernation and make it safe to overwinter, but also relatively increase the centipede's normal life period, which is conducive to improving the yield of centipede breeding. For example, on the eve of centipede overwintering, dig a pit 80-100cm deep in the farm, mix the excavated soil with the collected garbage mud ash at the ratio of 2:1, pour it into the pit and fill it up. Then spread the appropriate amount of broken bricks and tiles to put human centipedes. Then cover with a layer of fine soil, and finally cover with twigs and dead grass. This improves the environmental conditions for centipedes to overwinter.

Before the improvement of the overwintering environmental conditions, the soil temperature is low, and the soil temperature changes greatly in the morning, midday and evening, and then the soil temperature rises dramatically after the improvement. The temperature difference between morning, midday and evening is small, which can basically keep the soil temperature without big changes in the same day, which is favorable for centipedes to overwinter safely. Centipede overwintering environmental conditions after the improvement of many benefits, mainly: ① after deep turning, loosening the soil, air circulation in the soil layer, because the soil surface is covered with fine soil withered grass, masonry pieces of soil under the heat is not easy to dissipate, enhanced thermal insulation; and soil heat is easy to be distributed among the masonry pieces, reducing the temperature difference between the morning, noon, and night in a day. ② Brick tiles are easy to absorb water, resulting in a shady and humid environment required by centipedes, and the gap between the brick tiles is large, which is conducive to the centipede's entry and exit activities and habitats. ③ After mixing the garbage and soil, the garbage will rot and decompose rapidly, giving out a lot of heat energy, making the soil temperature rise and more constant, shortening the time of centipede's hibernation. ④Increase the organic matter and microorganisms in the soil, which is favorable to the reproduction of all kinds of small insects, and increase the fresh natural food for centipedes, and play the role of "natural feeding" for centipedes. Therefore, artificially improving the environmental conditions of centipedes' overwintering places is an effective way to help them overwinter safely and should be promoted. In addition, after the centipede has recovered its ability to move around during the winter, it is important to close the feeding place tightly to prevent the centipede from escaping.