How to Farm Cicada Nymphs (Pacha)? A Detailed Guide to Golden Cicada Farming Techniques

Pacha is a local name for the golden cicada in the Tai'an and Dongping area; other regions also call it dudagui, dulaode, pazha, cicada monkey, and so on. So how do you farm it?

How to farm pacha?

1. Seed collection

The primary seed source can be obtained by collecting naturally in the field; eggs, nymphs, and adults can all be collected as seed stock. From July to September, all stages can be collected; August to September is the best season to collect nymphs; September is the best time to collect branches with cicada eggs, and collection can be done year-round.

2. Farming environment

For the cicada, the “seeding” depth should be 30-50 cm; it should be sunny and protected from freezing, with loose, fertile, pollution-free soil; it must not be too dry, nor have too high a water content or water accumulation. The farming site can mainly use poplar, elm, willow, tung trees, or various fruit trees in orchards, while intercropping potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams, and so on.

3. Disease and pest prevention

After emerging from the soil, the nymphs (cicada turtles) and the adults after eclosion have many natural enemies, such as toads, snakes, rodents, hedgehogs, wild cats, sparrows, and mantises, all of which like to eat the nymphs (cicada turtles); microorganisms such as Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae, and entomopathogenic algae fungi (cicada flower) also parasitize and harm them. In addition, floods and pollution from pesticides and chemical fertilizers also cause relatively great harm to the nymphs (cicada turtles) or cicadas, so attention and protection are needed during farming.

4. Facilities

You can use the fruit trees in abandoned orchards, or replant fruit tree seedlings; set up a fence around the perimeter using cement posts or bamboo poles, then stretch iron wire and the like in between, and cover the outside with nylon window screen.

Harvest pacha each year from mid-to-late June (around the summer solstice) to early August (around the start of autumn), with collection in early July or after rain being the best.