Points to Note in Winter Centipede Farming

Because centipedes are poikilothermic animals, they must have a hibernation period of half a year every year, which greatly prolongs the centipede production cycle. In recent years, in order to maximize the farming benefits of centipedes and to push this farming industry toward the level of intensive factory production as quickly as possible, many regions have carried out winter centipede farming trials and achieved some encouraging results. Experiments have shown that under fully artificial temperature and humidity control and other conditions, farming centipedes can shorten the time from hatching to finished product from the original 4 years to 5 months, shortening the time by nearly 3 times. Summarizing the available information, we believe that winter greenhouse centipede farming must master the following key techniques:

1. Humidity control

This is the main technical key to heated winter farming. Because the temperature difference between inside and outside the rearing house is large, and the temperature difference between the ground and the indoor air is also large, air convection is serious, making it easy for moisture to evaporate. In particular, the rearing soil can maintain humidity of 20%——25%, and the relative air humidity should be adjusted to about 70%. The main facilities for maintaining humidity are: sprayers, straw curtains or burlap sacks hung above the rearing pools, and kept moist regularly. To supply moisture to the rearing soil, water is sprayed on the soil surface and seeps downward, allowing the centipedes to freely choose suitable areas to inhabit. In addition, because winter centipede farming mostly uses multi-level three-dimensional rearing pools or rearing troughs, even more attention should be paid to this problem for the upper rearing pools or troughs.

2. Temperature control

Heating is a necessary condition for winter centipede farming. In winter greenhouse centipede farming, the room temperature should be kept at 25——32 degrees Celsius, and special attention must be paid not to let the air temperature rise or fall suddenly. Otherwise, the centipedes will die in large numbers due to indigestion and metabolic disorders.

The main heating facilities are:

(1) Coal stoves with smoke guide pipes. It is best to prepare two sets to avoid a sharp temperature drop when changing coal.

(2) Heated brick beds with ground dragons or fire dragons. This method uses more fuel, but for areas in the north where heating brick beds is customary in winter, it can be combined with that custom. This point can be considered when designing winter rearing houses.

(3) Radiators. For farmers who have heating supply or industrial waste heat, this is a relatively convenient condition, because this method is safer, more hygienic, and convenient.

3. Bait supply

In winter centipede farming, bait supply is a relatively difficult problem, because in winter, the vast majority of bait animals for centipedes are also hibernating and are very difficult to find or capture. The only way to solve this problem is to rely on supporting cultures of bait animals, or to select dedicated sites before winter to store bait animals.