Experience and key technical points for mixed culture of scorpions and ground beetles

The ground beetle is a commonly used medicinal material, and raising it alone does not yield very high profits. By using a scorpion-rearing room to raise ground beetles and scorpions together, the profits produced by the ground beetles can cover the heating, feed and labor costs of scorpion rearing, while the scorpions provide pure additional profit. Under mixed culture conditions, the hatched ground beetle larvae can serve as food for the scorpions, and the skins shed by young scorpions and the leftover dried bodies of yellow mealworms are in turn eaten by the ground beetles, thus forming a virtuous cycle. The method for mixed culture of ground beetles and scorpions is as follows:  

First spread a 5 cm thick layer of rearing soil evenly in the rearing pool, and place tiles on top for the scorpions to rest on. The humidity inside the resting tiles is the key to the growth and development of scorpions. If the humidity is too low, young scorpions cannot shed their skins, while if the humidity is too high, it will cause fluid accumulation in the scorpions' pulmonary sacs, obstructed breathing and death by suffocation. At present, one form of resting nest for scorpions is to build nests in the rearing pool with bricks, tiles and stones for the scorpions to rest in, with sponges on top to provide moisture or water sprayed every other day to provide moisture. Although the surface appears moist, the humidity in the nests where the scorpions actually rest simply cannot reach the required level; another form is the nest-cell type (or honeycomb type), filled with soil and water to provide moisture, but the moisture supply is uneven, and the phenomenon of death from fluid accumulation in the scorpions' pulmonary sacs is quite serious, and regular disinfection and mite removal in the scorpion room cannot be carried out either; another is the ground-pool type, that is, digging pits in flat ground to build multiple independent small pools. Although moisture seepage at the ground surface basically meets the requirements, the pools are connected to the ground, and the surface temperature fluctuates with the seasons, making it very difficult to achieve rapid growth of the scorpions. Therefore, we recommend choosing plastic pipes with a length 5 cm greater than that of the nests and a diameter of 5 cm, with holes 2 to 3 mm in diameter drilled in the pipe walls, filled with sand or sponge (for adding water), and with a 2 to 3 cm thick moisture-seepage soil layer installed in the gaps between the pipes and ordinary tiles; the effect is relatively ideal. If conditions permit, using grid-type resting tiles for scorpion rearing with a built-in automatic moisture seepage device gives an even better effect.  

Place 2nd-instar scorpions into the rearing pool. Put in 1000 scorpions per square meter of rearing area in a single release. At the same time as releasing the 2nd-instar scorpions, sieve out 2nd-instar ground beetle nymphs and also place them on the rearing soil, at an amount of 50 grams per square meter. The scorpions rest on the rearing soil in the gaps between the tile stacks; food boxes or food trays can be placed there, with yellow mealworms of the same instar as the scorpions sprinkled inside as the scorpions' main food. The food box is 50 cm long, 5 cm wide and 1.2 cm high. A shallow dish can be used as the food tray. Every 3 to 5 days, mix roasted wheat bran, peanut cake and other mixed feed with green vegetables and sprinkle it into the food boxes or food trays to maintain the normal survival of the yellow mealworms. A little should also be sprinkled on the surface of the other rearing soil for the ground beetles to feed on, better to give too little than too much, with the standard being that the ground beetles eat the feed completely within 2 days. This not only avoids leftover feed rotting and contaminating the rearing soil, but also, when the ground beetles cannot get enough food, they will eat the skins shed by young scorpions and the leftover dried bodies of yellow mealworms, thus playing a role in cleaning the environment.  

When the scorpions enter the 5th instar, the pool can be cleaned once, the nests changed and disinfection carried out. From the rearing soil in the rearing pool, sieve out the ground beetles with an 8-mesh screen, then use a screen to sort out ground beetles of the 5th instar and above and put them into another rearing pool for concentrated rearing; after they grow into adults, they can be used as breeding stock or processed and sold as commodities. After the sieved rearing soil is exposed to the sun, add fresh rearing soil, then mix and use it with a 0.3% concentration potassium permanganate aqueous solution: if the density of the sorted small ground beetles is too low, add 2nd- to 3rd-instar weak nymphs and put them into the scorpion pool to continue mixed culture.