Butterfly Farming Methods Explained: A Step-by-Step Guide to Raising Butterflies
Butterflies are a common type of insect with a great many differentiated varieties, and different varieties are distributed across all parts of our country. Butterflies have a very beautiful appearance, and there are now many butterfly gardens in our country for people to visit, which has also driven the development of the butterfly farming industry. Butterfly farming is also an inevitable trend in our country, so how do you farm butterflies? An introduction to butterfly farming methods!
1. Site Construction
Before farming butterflies, you must choose a good farming site. Butterflies like light, so when choosing a farming site you should choose a moist area with normal lighting, normal ventilation, and deep, fertile soil. Note that you must not choose areas where crops are grown, such as vegetable gardens and orchards. This is because butterflies will feed on pollen and the flesh of crops, which is very unfavorable to crop growth. After choosing the farming site, prepare rearing equipment similar to that used for silkworm rearing, control the height well, and enclose the sides and top of the rearing net shed with nylon netting to prevent the butterflies from escaping.
2. Seed Selection and Hatching
When selecting butterfly stock, you mainly collect butterfly eggs, pupae, and adults in the wild, or you can also buy them from specialized farming units and individuals. When selecting stock, pay attention to the species and authenticity to avoid a direction of farming that does not suit you. If you catch them yourself, pay attention to pairing males and females, or catch those that are in the egg-laying period. We can catch them according to the living habits of female butterflies. Female butterflies usually like to lay eggs in the gaps of leaves, fruits, and branches. After catching them, we should prepare an egg-laying site in the rearing room according to the living habits of the butterflies. During the egg-laying period, pay attention to humidity and cover them appropriately with a wet cloth. When humidity is too low, the hatching rate will be reduced.
3. Planting Flowers
After emerging, butterflies mainly feed on pollen, so when hatching butterflies we should plant appropriate flowers in the rearing shed. Before planting, apply sufficient rotted farmyard manure and compound fertilizer, and deeply plow and thoroughly cultivate the soil, keeping the deep plowing depth at about 30cm, so that the base fertilizer is fully mixed with the soil. The flowers should mainly be of the Apiaceae family, maintaining sufficient pollen and nectar to provide ample food for the growth of the butterflies, ensuring that the butterflies lay eggs normally and preparing for the larvae to enter the soil and pupate, and preventing insufficient pollen and nectar from affecting the growth and reproduction of the butterflies.
4. Rearing Management
Butterfly rearing management is divided into larval and adult rearing. The feed for butterfly larvae is mostly based on the leaves, stems, and flowers and fruits of plants. When feeding, you can collect them and put them together in one place for feeding. You must control the rearing density of the larvae and must not rear them too densely, because some varieties of butterflies are cannibalistic, and rearing them too densely may lead to mass death of the larvae. When the larvae have grown for about a week, they can begin to pupate. After pupation, keep the objects to which the pupae are attached moist, and after a period of time they will break out of the cocoon. After becoming adults, provide enough food for the butterflies. The main foods are water, pollen nectar, and milk, and adjust the feed appropriately according to the different varieties.
The above is a brief introduction to butterfly farming techniques by Tuliu.com. There is still great risk in butterfly farming now, because after farming there is no specific sales channel, and if the main purpose is ornamental, the butterfly garden's visibility is also insufficient. Therefore, everyone must consider carefully when farming and must not farm blindly.