How to Store Egg Branches of Golden Cicadas in Autumn and Winter During Farming

The golden cicada actually belongs to the cicada family; before the cicada emerges as an adult, we call it the golden cicada. In some areas of northern China, the golden cicada can be made into a delicious dish and is deeply loved by local people. This is the profoundness of Chinese culture, while in the south only a minority of people like to eat cicadas, and most people still do not dare to try them.

What Is Golden Cicada Egg-Laying

The golden cicada emerges from the ground and molts into a cicada in July on the solar calendar, and generally by July 20 you can see egg-laying branches in the woods. Cicadas continue laying eggs until the end of August. August is the time of the Start of Autumn, when the days are still quite hot, and it is also a season with relatively more rain. During this period, egg branches preserved naturally on the trees do relatively well! For the egg branches I collected in August, most branches had not yet completely died. After pruning, I tied them into small bundles of about 100 branches. If there is continuous dry weather, soak the branches in water until thoroughly wet, take them out, drain the water, and place them upright in a shady spot in the yard, not exposed to the sun, while still receiving the natural nourishment of wind, frost, rain and dew! In autumn the temperature is still around 30°C, so you should pay attention to continuous high-temperature dry weather and spray water in time to maintain moisture. In the evening, use a sprayer to spray them wet and soak them through, once a week is enough. Spraying too frequently will make the egg branches moldy and rotten. If there is mold, just put them in the sun to dry. Be careful to kill ants and spiders. In winter, which is cold and dry, the egg branches lose little water, so you can spray less, or move them indoors. The ancients said that cicadas grow by feeding on wind and drinking dew; in fact, during the development and hatching period of cicada eggs, it is the sunlight and rain of nature that nourish the cicada eggs!

How to Choose Egg Branches for Golden Cicadas

1. Ash tree golden cicada egg branches

Advantages: They are not easy to rot during long periods in a greenhouse.

Disadvantages: Because this kind of egg branch has hard and tough wood, it is not easy to keep moist

2. Fruit tree golden cicada egg branches

Advantages: Like poplar egg branches, they hatch very easily

Disadvantages: For fruit tree egg branches, there are relatively many wild golden cicadas under fruit trees, so fruit tree golden cicada eggs are better than other golden cicada egg branches. However, artificial rearing is needed for cicadas to mate and lay eggs on branches.

3. Poplar golden cicada egg branches

Advantages: Easy to hatch, easy to keep moist, no pesticide residue, and more suitable for the technique of covering with grass to retain moisture

Disadvantages: Easy to rot

Recommendation: Use fruit tree golden cicada egg branches (such as under apple trees, pear trees, and peach trees, where there are already many wild golden cicadas and cicada nymphs emerging, so the survival rate is also high. However, large-scale collection requires artificial rearing of cicadas for mating, which can yield more fertilized eggs and golden cicada egg branches).

The Farming Process of Golden Cicada Egg Branches  

1. Collection and storage of golden cicada egg branches: Golden cicada eggs are collected after golden cicadas lay eggs in autumn, generally around August. The golden cicada inserts the small spike at its tail into a one-year-old tender branch and lays eggs inside the branch, mostly on juicy branches such as ash and poplar. After egg-laying, the branch usually dries up within two hours, so most branches that are green at the lower end and dry at the tip contain cicada eggs. Therefore, through a year of experimental observation of the monthly development of golden cicada eggs, we have summarized a set of the latest successful golden cicada farming techniques.  

2. Post-collection treatment and storage: After collecting branches with cicada eggs, remove the dry leaves, cut off both ends, tie 100 into a bundle, and store them in a dark, damp room for hatching and use in May of the following year. Golden cicada eggs of the current year will not hatch into golden cicada larvae. You can collect some wild golden cicada eggs from September each year to June of the following year and observe them under a microscope. By May of the following year, spread a layer of sand on the bottom of a large washbasin, place the tied branches upright in the basin, keep the temperature at 28-34 degrees, and maintain moisture by spraying whenever they dry, using a sprayer aimed at the branches until they are soaked through.  

3. Hatching: After about thirty-five days, larvae will hatch. At this time you will see some larvae crawling up and down on the branches. At this point you must pay attention to the number of hatched larvae. Generally, after 4-5 days, spread the sand and the collected larvae together into the woods. For specific methods, you can refer to the illustrated guide to golden cicada farming techniques.  

4. In the golden cicada farming process, you must absolutely avoid burying the seed branches, eggs, or larvae. This is simply subjective human imagination. Under natural conditions, golden cicada eggs can only burrow into the ground to grow after hatching into larvae. Eggs do not move and cannot enter the ground. Without the temperature and humidity of the natural world, cicada eggs will die, let alone hatch into larvae in the soil. This is pure nonsense!  

5. Harvesting: If there are trees, usually wrap a circle of transparent tape at a height of one meter to keep the cicadas from climbing high and molting. From the date the cicada ants are sown, they become adults in 36 months.

Preservation of Golden Cicada Eggs  

For golden cicada egg branches collected in the current year, after artificial pruning, store them naturally in some cool, damp indoor rooms without other management. Wait until early spring of the following year, when the temperature begins to rise and the weather becomes dry. Starting in March on the solar calendar, you should begin sprinkling some water on the golden cicada egg branches every week to keep them at a certain humid temperature. In fact, after the temperature rises, golden cicada eggs also begin to develop slowly. In this way, after hatching begins in May, it is very easy to hatch cicada ants, and the hatching rate will also be greatly increased!

Golden cicadas are actually quite common in our lives. In summer, sometimes before dawn you can hear cicadas calling outside the window, and sometimes it sounds especially annoying! But cicadas are rich in protein, and in some places they are very popular!