What practical tips are there for raising silkworms in rural areas?
I think everyone is fairly familiar with silkworms; many children like to raise them for fun, and sericulturists have accumulated a lot of useful practical experience in daily sericulture production. Here are several tips for raising silkworms in rural areas, for the reference of sericulture households.
Techniques for rural sericulture
1. Making a “dust mask”. Many sericulturists know that the key to sericulture is strict disinfection, but when shaking anti-stiffening powder, the dust is heavy and the smell is pungent, so people often rush through it carelessly. Here is a kind of “dust mask”. It is very simple: just wet the mask you normally use before using it, and the powder particles will stick to the outside of the mask instead of being inhaled into the body, and the smell is also reduced.
2. The clever use of mothballs. Many sericulturists now use the automatic mounting technique with square mounts, which can save a great deal of labor and time. That makes the use of mounting agents very important. There is a simple and effective agent, the common mothball. Grind mothballs finely, mix 1 part with 50 parts water and lime powder evenly, then shake a layer onto the mature silkworms, until it looks like a thin frost.
3. The use of woven bags. Silkworm rearing tables are now being promoted in many places. Rural areas have many woven bags (plastic woven sacks) previously used for fertilizer, cement, and so on, which are very useful for silkworm rearing tables. Cut open the woven bags, wash and disinfect them (note! they must be washed and disinfected), then lay them on the silkworm rearing table woven from bamboo strips, and raise the older silkworms on top. This exactly suits the ventilation and air permeability conditions needed for the growth of older silkworms, so silkworm diseases occur less and the silkworms develop well.
4. Drying materials can be sourced widely. The drying material usually used in sericulture is scorched chaff. But sometimes chaff husks cannot be found. In fact, there are many materials in rural areas that can be made into drying materials for sericulture, such as: rapeseed seed husks, rice straw segments, wheat straw segments, etc. Burn them to a half-scorched state and mix with lime powder (seven parts dry chaff husks to three parts lime), then sprinkle on the silkworm bed; the moisture-absorbing effect is also good. Plant ash after burning firewood can also be used directly as a drying material.
Is sericulture profitable
Mulberry silkworm cocoon rearing is divided into spring silkworms, summer silkworms, and autumn silkworms; autumn silkworms are further divided into mid-autumn silkworms and late-autumn silkworms. Spring silkworms are the best in quality, followed by autumn silkworms. Rearing varieties include Nongsang, and others. The growth cycle of mulberry silkworm cocoons is limited by temperature. Each spring, rearing of spring silkworms starts around April 20, with 26-27 days as one growth cycle. Summer pruning starts around May 20. After the mulberry trees grow new leaves again, rearing of summer silkworms starts around June 25, with 24-25 days as one growth cycle. Because the interval between mid-autumn silkworms and summer silkworms is short, and poor disinfection may affect growth and quality, mid-autumn silkworms are generally not raised. Late-autumn silkworms generally start to be raised around September 5 and end in early October. For the summer silkworm season, due to the influence of temperature, environment, purchase prices, and other factors, some farmers choose to raise two seasons, spring silkworms and autumn silkworms, while others choose to raise three seasons of silkworms. From surveys, it is learned that: one mulberry sapling costs 0.4 yuan, 1440 saplings are planted per mu, and 7-8 years is one cycle, with an average annual investment in mulberry trees of 87.27 yuan/mu.
The net profit per mu of mulberry silkworms is 7542.49 yuan, and the price of mulberry silkworms is 2817 yuan per 50 kg. Due to rising purchase prices, cocoon income has increased. In recent years, cocoon silk processing enterprises have grown rapidly, and the total output of cocoon silk processing and the total demand for raw material cocoons have risen substantially; in order to maintain normal production, cocoon silk processing enterprises have had to jointly purchase raw materials even when raw material cocoon prices are high and profit margins are not large.
Prospects and market conditions for sericulture
From the perspective of the international market, as the traditional capital of mulberry planting and sericulture, China's silk and silk processed products are deeply favored by countries around the world, and consumption of silk is growing. According to incomplete statistics, China's silk products are sold to 140 countries, and among these countries and regions, the United States, Japan, and others are the main trading partners. After the 2008 financial crisis, with economic recovery, China's silk exports have steadily risen in recent years. The huge demand in the international market and the favor for China's silk have brought greater development space to China's mulberry silkworm industry. From the perspective of the domestic market, in earlier years silk, as a high-end consumer good, had a very small share of China's market consumption, and per capita silk consumption was far below the world average. As people's material living standards improve, the demand for the quality of home textile products is also increasing, and silk, as a high-end home textile consumer product, is also entering ordinary households. When China's potentially huge market is tapped, it will bring enormous business opportunities to the entire silk industry and push the whole industry onto a fast track of development.
Although demand for silk in international and domestic markets is increasing, mulberry planting and sericulture is a labor-intensive industry and requires a large land area. The eastern region, as China's traditional mulberry planting and sericulture area, has lost its advantage in mulberry planting and sericulture due to increasingly scarce land resources and the fact that local people can obtain greater returns by engaging in other industries. The overall trend of mulberry planting and sericulture is gradually shifting to the western region, which has abundant human resources, low labor costs, and relatively sufficient land resources. For example, the proportion of silk produced in places such as Guizhou, Guangxi, and Shaanxi is increasing year by year. At the same time, according to actual conditions, the state is also implementing the “East Mulberry Moves West” strategic adjustment for the mulberry silkworm industry, increasing capital investment and policy support in the west, all of which bring development opportunities to the local mulberry silkworm industry.
Key technical points of sericulture
1. Pay attention to the management of harvesting newly hatched silkworms and the hairy period. Dark protection of blue-turning eggs: one day before receiving the seeds, heat the small silkworm room to 26-27%, exhaust harmful gases, and keep the wet-dry difference at 1-2°C. After receiving the silkworm seeds, quickly transport them to the small silkworm room for dark protection. Lay a piece of anti-drying paper inside the silkworm tray, place flat-attached eggs facing downward, and for loose eggs, spread the egg grains flat on the anti-drying paper, then cover with an egg-pressing net to fix the egg grains. Then cover with a piece of anti-drying paper, cover with a silkworm tray, and place it in the middle position of the silkworm rack until hatching.
2. Strict disinfection and disease prevention. The younger the silkworm, the weaker its resistance, so disinfection and disease prevention must be strict. After harvesting the newly hatched silkworms, use anti-stiffening powder to disinfect the silkworm bodies. Starting from the 2nd instar, use Canzuojing or Disease Prevention No. 1 at the beginning of each instar and in the middle period to disinfect the silkworm bed and silkworm bodies.
3. Do a good job of temperature regulation and humidification. Centered on the rearing requirements of keeping small silkworms warm and moist, the main rearing form is cover rearing. This achieves the requirements of keeping mulberry leaves fresh and promoting full feeding and uniform development of the silkworms. Small silkworms can adapt to rearing at higher temperature and humidity. However, as the instar develops, temperature and humidity should be appropriately lowered. The standard temperature and humidity needed by small silkworms are: 1st instar temperature 27.2-27.8%, wet-dry difference 1-2°C; 2nd instar temperature 26.1-26.7°C, wet-dry difference 1-2°C; 3rd instar temperature 25-25.6°C, wet-dry difference 2-3°C.
4. Select mulberry leaves carefully. Small silkworms grow and develop quickly and gain weight rapidly, so small silkworms need high-quality mulberry leaves with relatively more water, rich protein, and an appropriate amount of carbohydrates to meet the needs of their rapid growth and development.
5. Expand the bed in time, even out the silkworms, and feed mulberry leaves. Small silkworms grow quickly. The silkworm body area increases rapidly. To avoid frequent contact among silkworm bodies and mutual infection, the bed must be expanded in time. Small silkworms move over a small range and perceive mulberry leaves only at short distances, so before each feeding, first even out the bed, then feed mulberry leaves, to ensure the small silkworms feed fully.
Although they are just small, inconspicuous silkworms, the silk they spin is still in great demand in the market, so many people have noticed this business opportunity. However, to succeed in developing along the path of sericulture still requires a good deal of effort.