Hebei Langfang centipede breeding, Hebei Tangshan centipede breeding technology, Hebei Chengde centipede breeding prospects
Nongke惠民breeding farm specializes in breeding golden head centipedes and feed mealworms, integrating breeding, sales, and product recovery into a large-scale breeding farm. Practical and trustworthy, allowing a wide range of customers to breed golden head centipedes and feed mealworms well, exchanging the least investment for the greatest return.
Supported by Huazhong Agricultural University: A key university under the national "211 Project" - Huazhong Agricultural University jointly researches with Wuhan Nongke惠民Biological Engineering Co., Ltd., dedicated to scientific farming and enriching farmers through centipede breeding technology:惠民No. 2 Golden Head Centipede.
Advanced technical advantages: Wuhan Nongke惠民Biological Engineering Co., Ltd., together with several biological experts and professors of biological engineering from Huazhong Agricultural University, have cultivated a new generation of varieties -惠民No. 2 Golden Head Centipede through years of breeding observation and optimal purification techniques using biogenetic improvement projects. Observations show that this variety is simple to raise, gentle in nature, strong in adaptability, fast-growing, highly reproductive, better in medicinal value, and more economically significant, making it an ideal investment project for many breeding friends.
Complete breeding facilities: The company leverages its agricultural science advantages, characterized by life sciences, relying on experts and scholars from the Animal Science and Technology College, focusing on modern bioengineering, special breeding, insect resource development, integrating research, breeding, teaching, promotion, technical services, production, sales, import and export trade into a high-tech enterprise. It has large ecological breeding areas, solar house breeding areas, greenhouse breeding areas, etc., and separate technical training centers, seedling breeding centers, germplasm rooms, incubation rooms, gene conversion rooms, with excellent foundations and complete systems.
Wuhan Nongke惠民Company: Upholding the tradition of "diligent reading and hard work, self-establishment and helping others," our company aims at "scientific farming" as its purpose, promoting the industrial development of centipede resources with the business philosophy of "integrity, dedication, practicality, innovation, and win-win." We are committed to providing our fellow farmers with higher quality and higher yield seedlings, more advanced technology, and more comprehensive services, advancing together to create a brighter tomorrow.
Wuhan Nongke惠民Centipede Breeding Official Website: hm9188.com/index1.asp
Inquiry: 027-87672386 or 87672385 Teacher Yu, Add QQ for detailed understanding: 1229441013
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Hubei Nongke惠民Centipede Breeding Base Address: Room 318, Tianhui Building, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuchang District, Wuhan City
Centipedes avoid sunlight, are active at night, and like to live in dark, warm, sheltered, and well-ventilated places. Artificial breeding often mimics natural environments, allowing them to inhabit decaying wood cracks and abandoned damp grasslands. The place for artificial centipede breeding must be chosen in a quiet environment, maintaining tranquility to reduce unnecessary disturbances that might affect their normal growth activities.
The artificial breeding of centipedes involves building centipede breeding pools. Centipedes, also known as heavenly dragons, have high medicinal and economic value. Currently, there are not many sources of centipedes, and artificial breeding is a way for rural areas to get rich. Most artificially bred centipedes in China are few-spined centipedes. Here's an introduction to the breeding techniques:
1. Construction of centipede breeding pools: The breeding pool should be built in a sunny, ventilated, relatively humid, secluded place. The breeding pool can be built indoors or outdoors. The breeding pool is constructed using bricks or stone materials, with cement plastering, ideally 80 cm deep. The inner walls of the pool are lined with smooth, undamaged plastic film, or a glass overhang is embedded around the pool opening at a right angle to the wall, about 15 cm wide, to prevent centipedes from escaping. Inside the pool, a water ditch 10 cm wide and 4 cm deep is dug along the walls, with a feeding trough 30 cm wide and 3 cm deep inside for placing feed. Trees and shrubs can be planted inside the pool, and stones and tiles can be stacked for centipedes to inhabit. After placing seedlings, a layer of straw curtain should cover the pool to block light. The pool should remain clean, moist, cool, and hygienic.
Living characteristics of centipedes:
1. Habitat environment: Centipedes avoid sunlight, are active at night, and like to live in dark, warm, sheltered, well-ventilated places. They mainly live in low mountain areas with more rocks and less soil. Although they are distributed in plain areas, their numbers are fewer.
Centipedes are important traditional animal medicines, whose medicinal properties and uses are clearly described in famous medical literature such as Li Shizhen's Compendium of Materia Medica. The distribution of medicinal sources is in provinces south of the Yangtze River, mainly in Hubei and Zhejiang provinces, identified as few-spined centipedes. According to reports, Zhejiang's main production areas are Hai Ning and Dai Shan in the Jiaxing region. Due to changes in the production environment, the annual capture volume in the Jiaxing region has dropped from two million to ten thousand over the past one or two decades. To increase centipede resources, small-scale indoor artificial breeding and island release trials have been conducted. In the Zhoushan area, analysis of wild medicinal centipede resources includes its population structure and capture volume. Research on centipede biological characteristics was conducted at the centipede trial breeding site, observing egg-laying quantity, egg-laying period, brooding period, egg-eating, re-egg-laying after eating eggs, molting patterns during growth, life cycle, reproductive cycle, diet, etc., providing scientific basis for artificial centipede breeding. Breakthroughs were made in live sex identification, increasing hatching rates, and experiences accumulated in overcoming mold diseases, drying, and food problems. In 1976 and 1978, adult centipedes were released on Hengle Mountain Island, and by 1980, observations found that each generation of new centipedes grew actively, proving the success of island releases. Selecting suitable islands for centipede releases is also one direction for developing breeding.
(1) Living habits
Centipedes mainly live in rocky, low-mountain areas, with only a small distribution in plains. After the Awakening of Insects each year, with rising temperatures, centipedes awaken from hibernation and begin activities, living in shady, damp grasslands or among scattered rocks. From Grain Buds to Summer Solstice, as temperatures gradually rise, they gradually move to cool ditches, graves, field ridges, or gaps in earth banks, avoiding the heat of the day. In late autumn, they mostly inhabit wind-sheltered, sun-facing loose soil slopes or warmer tree holes and roots. In summary, centipedes fear light and are active at night, preferring to live in dark, damp, warm, and ventilated caves. Therefore, when artificially breeding centipedes, we need to create the living conditions they require according to their living habits. For example, planting trees and grass, placing bricks and tiles in the breeding grounds are measures taken to meet the environmental requirements of centipedes.
Centipedes generally come out alone at night. Though they have eight single eyes, their vision is weak, especially poor during the day. When moving individually, they only detour when antennae touch, each avoiding the other. On clear, windless nights, 8 PM to 11 PM is their peak activity time. Their characteristic is more nighttime activity and less daytime activity; more activity when temperatures exceed 25°C, less when 10-15°C; almost no activity below 10°C; more activity on hot, rainy nights, less on cold nights; more activity on windless or slightly windy nights, less on windy (wind force above six) nights; more activity on rainy nights, less on rainy days. Thus, the frequency of centipede activity is closely related to temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, rainfall, and light intensity. These meteorological factors need attention in artificial centipede breeding. Also, centipedes have strong seam-dwelling abilities, allowing them to smoothly pass through rock and soil crevices and inhabit these spaces.
In cases of high density or frequent disturbance, centipedes may kill each other. However, under breeding conditions, with improved living and feeding conditions, even with higher densities, there is little effect on their lives if provided with sufficient fresh feed and water sources without excessive disturbance. Especially centipedes from the same mother, having lived together since young, grow up harmoniously even curled together in groups. Providing enough fresh feed and water sources, maintaining a quiet environment, are essential conditions for artificial centipede breeding.
(2) Capture
It is best to capture centipedes around the Qingming Festival. Centipedes are oviparous insects, based on their preference for shade, quietness, and fear of strong light, choose forest-shaded or slope-shaded areas as capture sites. Place chicken feathers, miscellaneous bones, or dead leaves to lure centipedes to nest and lay eggs, picking eggs before the Qingming Festival. When picking eggs, bring back soil and branches together, place them in the breeding pool or tank covered for hatching. During the hatching period, gently turn the covering material regularly to prevent other pests from entering, ensuring the safe hatching of young ones.
(3) Feeding management
1) Feed: Centipedes are typical carnivorous insects, fierce in nature, capturing various small animals with their venomous jaw claws. Their food sources are extensive. Based on field observations and trial breeding results, combined with breeding experiences from various regions, centipede feeds include the following categories: one category is various insects, such as crickets, locusts, tobacco beetles, June bugs, rice bagworms, hornworms, cicadas, grasshoppers, dragonflies, spiders, flies, and bees, including adults, pupae, larvae, and eggs. Another category includes worms, earthworms, snails, slugs, and vertebrates like frogs, snakes, lizards, geckos, sparrows, mice, and bats, including muscles, bones, and internal organs. Yet another category includes tender grasses, twigs, root tips, melons like watermelons and cucumbers, as well as cooked products like eggs, milk, and bread when primary food sources are insufficient. Additionally, artificially bred centipedes in Zhejiang mainly eat loaches, eels, small fish, shrimp, and crabs.
Although centipedes have diverse food sources, they require fresh food and do not eat spoiled food. Therefore, in artificial breeding, fresh feed must be provided every 2-3 days. Before feeding, thoroughly remove leftover food from the previous feeding. Centipedes have large appetites and strong hunger endurance. When hungry, they can consume up to 1/5 to 3/5 of their body weight in one meal. After eating fully, they can survive without food for ten to fifteen days. Simultaneously, centipedes cannot endure thirst and need water daily. Therefore, water containers must be placed in the breeding ground, and water must be changed regularly to keep it fresh and clean.
2) Egg-laying and hatching: Each spring and early summer is the egg-laying season for centipedes. Each female centipede usually lays between 20-60 eggs, mostly 40-50, sometimes less than 10. Before laying eggs, the centipede's abdomen tightly adheres to the ground, digging a shallow hole. While laying eggs, the centipede's body curves into an "S" shape, producing eggs serially into the pre-dug shallow hole. Without external disturbances, the process takes 2-3 hours. Afterward, the centipede turns sideways, gathering the eggs with its legs into a cluster, holding them in its "arms" for hatching. The laid eggs are elliptical, varying in size, typically about 3-3.5mm in diameter, yellowish-white, semi-transparent, with elastic membranes.
The hatching period for centipedes is relatively long, usually requiring 43-50 days. During hatching, both the external appearance and internal structure change continuously with embryo development. After a month, the egg begins to take on the form of a larva, approximately 1.2cm in length, showing the movement of the larva within the membrane. Around 35-40 days, the larva grows to about 1.5cm, capable of climbing up and down but still unable to leave the mother. By 43-45 days, the larva reaches about 2.5cm and can leave the mother to find food independently. Throughout the hatching period, the mother already stores sufficient nutrients and does not require food, otherwise, it could cause contamination of the eggs or larvae by food, leading to consumption by the mother, affecting hatching rates and larval survival rates.
During the hatching period, the mother never leaves the egg cluster or larvae, carefully incubating and guarding them. She frequently moves her antennae to drive away nearby insects and uses her jaws or mouth to lick the egg cluster or larvae. Observations suggest that secretions from the base glands of the mother's jaws or oral glands clean the egg cluster or larvae, preventing bacterial infections or contamination by other substances.
If disturbed externally during egg-laying or hatching, centipedes will stop laying eggs and eat all previously laid or hatching eggs, which is referred to as the centipede's "protective" reaction. After eating eggs, centipedes can re-lay and hatch eggs, but this significantly delays the egg-laying and hatching periods, reduces the number of eggs, and lowers hatching rates, impacting the quantity and quality of centipedes. Therefore, during artificial centipede breeding, the surrounding environment must remain quiet during egg-laying and hatching, avoiding disturbances, which is an essential point in breeding management.
3) Molting and growth development: Centipedes belong to the crustacean class of arthropods, covered by chitin shells that restrict further growth and development. To overcome the limitations imposed by the shell, they molt several times during growth and development. Each molt visibly increases their size. Embryonic development involves three molts, and adults generally molt once a year, occasionally twice.
Molting mostly occurs in midsummer or after egg-laying. Before molting, their body color changes, movements slow down, they stop eating, and their vision and antennae capabilities weaken. Molting proceeds sequentially from front to back, finally shedding the tail appendage. The shed old skin appears wrinkled, stretching out to reveal a complete centipede body. Molting takes about 2 hours to complete. Disturbances should be avoided during molting, as they can prolong the molting time. Additionally, precautions should be taken to prevent attacks by ants during molting, as they can easily bite or injure the centipedes.
Centipedes develop slowly. First-year larvae grow to about 3.3-3.9 cm by the end of hibernation, reaching about 4.9-6.6 cm in the second year with adequate food. Generally, it takes 3-4 years for larvae to develop into sexually mature adults. Growth speed is closely related to the adequacy of food and feeding duration. Indoor breeding shows faster growth compared to natural breeding. Therefore, providing sufficient fresh feed is one of the critical conditions for increasing yield.
4) Wintering: Centipedes are ectothermic animals, greatly affected by changes in external temperatures. Cold winters threaten their survival. To escape the cold, they burrow underground and hibernate. During hibernation, they do not eat or move, curling their bodies into "S" or "L" shapes. The depth of burrowing is directly related to temperature and soil temperature. Lower temperatures result in deeper burrowing, while higher temperatures lead to shallower burrowing. Under normal conditions, they hibernate at depths of 15-40 cm; in colder conditions, they hibernate at depths of 80-100 cm. If soil temperatures rise, hibernation can be delayed, and they can hibernate near the surface or even on the surface. Clearly, soil temperature is the key factor affecting the duration and depth of centipede hibernation. In breeding, artificially raising the soil temperature of hibernation sites can shorten hibernation time, ensure safe wintering, and relatively increase the normal activity period of centipedes, benefiting yield. For example, before centipedes hibernate, dig pits 80-100 cm deep in the breeding grounds, mix the excavated soil with collected garbage ash at a ratio of 2:1, fill the pits, place appropriate brick and tile fragments, add centipedes, cover with fine soil, and finally cover with branches and dry grass. This improves the wintering environment for centipedes.
Before improving the wintering environment, soil temperatures were low, fluctuating significantly throughout the day. After improvement, soil temperatures rise significantly, with minimal fluctuations throughout the day, keeping soil temperatures stable within a day, beneficial for safe centipede wintering. The benefits of improving the wintering environment include: ① Deep turning loosens the soil, improving air circulation. Covering with fine soil and dry grass prevents heat loss, enhancing insulation capacity. Heat emitted between bricks and tiles minimizes temperature differences throughout the day. ② Bricks and tiles absorb moisture, creating the damp environment centipedes require, with larger gaps facilitating entry and exit and habitation. ③ Mixing garbage with soil accelerates decomposition, releasing heat, raising and stabilizing soil temperatures, shortening centipede hibernation time. ④ Increased organic matter and microorganisms promote the reproduction of small insects, providing fresh natural food for centipedes, achieving "natural feeding". Therefore, artificially improving the wintering environment for centipedes is an effective method to help them safely overwinter and should be promoted. Additionally, after centipedes recover from wintering and regain activity, the breeding grounds should be sealed to prevent escape.