How to Raise Centipedes? An Introduction to Centipede Rearing Methods
(1) Living Habits
Centipedes mainly live in low mountain areas with lots of stones and little soil, and are only found in small numbers in plain regions. Each year after the Awakening of Insects solar term, as temperatures warm up, centipedes awaken from hibernation and begin to emerge and become active, preferring to dwell in damp, shady weed thickets or gullies full of loose stones. From Grain in Ear to the Summer Solstice, as temperatures gradually rise, they again move into shady ditches, graveyards, field ridges or the crevices of earthen banks, avoiding the hot daytime. By late autumn, they mostly shelter under wind-sheltered, sun-facing loose-soil slopes or in warmer spots such as tree holes and around tree roots. In short, centipedes are afraid of light and shy away from brightness, hiding by day and coming out at night, and they like to live in dark, damp, warm and well-ventilated burrows. So when raising centipedes artificially, you must, according to their living habits, do your best to create the living conditions they require. For example, planting trees and grass in the rearing enclosure and placing bricks and tiles are among the measures taken to meet the centipede's requirements for its living environment.
Centipedes generally come out at night to move about alone. Although they have 8 simple eyes, their eyesight is weak, and especially poor during the day. When moving alone, they only detour around each other after their antennae touch, each avoiding the other. On clear, windless nights, 20:00 to 23:00 is their peak activity period. Their activity is characterised by more activity at night and less by day; more activity when the temperature is above 25°C and less when it is 10-15°C; even less or even no activity below 10°C; more activity on muggy nights and nights after rain, and less on nights with low temperatures; more activity on windless or lightly breezy nights and less on windy nights (wind force above 6 on the Beaufort scale); more activity on nights after rain and less on rainy nights. From this it can be seen that the frequency of centipede activity is closely related to meteorological factors such as temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, rainfall and light intensity. So when raising centipedes artificially, you must pay attention to the influence of the above meteorological factors on their lives. At the same time, centipedes are very good at squeezing through cracks, so they can smoothly slip through the gaps and holes in rocks and earthen banks and can dwell in these crevices.
When centipedes live at too high a density or are disturbed too often, they are prone to killing one another and dying. However, under rearing conditions, with improvements in the living environment and rearing conditions, such as providing enough fresh feed and water and not disturbing their lives too much, even at a relatively high rearing density their lives are not greatly affected. In particular, centipedes born from the same mother, having lived together since youth, can live together in harmony even when dozens of them curl up together as adults. So providing enough fresh feed and water and maintaining a quiet environment are essential conditions for artificially raising centipedes.
(2) Catching
It is generally best to catch them before Qingming Festival. Centipedes are oviparous insects, and according to their living habits of liking shade and dampness and quiet, and fearing strong light, choose places in dense woods that block the sun or on shady hillsides as catching sites. In these places, place chicken feathers, miscellaneous bones or dry grass and leaves to lure centipedes to dwell and lay eggs, and collect the eggs before Qingming Festival. When collecting the eggs, take back the soil together with twigs and weeds, put them into a rearing pool or rearing jar, cover them and then incubate. During incubation, gently turn over the covering material frequently to prevent other pests from invading, so as to ensure the young hatch out smoothly and safely.
(3) Rearing Management
1) Feed: The centipede is a typical carnivorous insect, relatively fierce in nature, and with its venom-injecting jaw claws it can prey on all kinds of small animals much larger than itself. The centipede has a wide range of food sources. From field observations and trial-rearing observations, and drawing on rearing experience from various places, centipede feed mainly includes the following categories: one category is various insects, such as the adults, pupae, larvae and eggs of crickets, locusts, tobacco beetles, scarab beetles, rice borers, longhorn beetles, cicadas, grasshoppers, dragonflies, spiders, flies and bees. Another category is invertebrates such as worms, earthworms, snails and slugs, as well as the muscle, bones and internal organs of vertebrates such as frogs, snakes, lizards, geckos, sparrows, rats and bats. Yet another category, when the above food sources are insufficient, is a small amount of tender young grass, shoot tips, root tips, and melons and fruits such as watermelon and cucumber, as well as cooked products such as eggs, milk and bread. In addition, centipedes raised artificially in Zhejiang mainly feed on loach, yellow eel, small fish, small shrimp and small crabs.
Although the centipede's food sources are broad and varied, it requires fresh food and will not eat rotten, smelly food. So when raising them artificially, fresh feed must be given once every 2-3 days. Before feeding, thoroughly clear away the leftover feed from the previous time. Centipedes eat a large amount at one time and have a strong tolerance for hunger. When hungry, they can eat 1/5 to 3/5 of their own body weight in one meal. After eating their fill, they will not starve to death even if given no food for ten days to half a month. At the same time, centipedes cannot tolerate thirst and need to drink water every day. Therefore, water containers must be placed in the rearing enclosure, and the water must be changed regularly to keep the drinking water fresh and clean.
2) Egg-laying and Hatching: Late spring to early summer each year is the centipede's egg-laying period. Each female centipede generally lays 20-60 eggs, mostly 40-50, with a few laying fewer than 10. Before laying, the centipede presses its abdomen close to the ground and digs a shallow burrow by itself. When laying, the centipede's body curves into an "S" shape, and the eggs are laid one by one in a string from the genital pore into the shallow burrow it has dug. With no external disturbance, egg-laying takes 2-3 hours. After finishing, it immediately turns its body sideways and uses its walking legs to gather the eggs into a cluster, holding them "in its arms" to incubate. The eggs the centipede lays are oval in shape and vary in size, generally about 3-3.5mm in diameter, cream-coloured, semi-transparent, and the egg membrane is elastic.