Rearing Methods and Processing Techniques for Medicinal Stiff Silkworm

At present, the demand for medicinal stiff silkworm in the Chinese medicinal materials market is growing, and rearing and processing it is profitable.

Its rearing and processing methods are:

1. Rearing of mature silkworms

Rearing and processing medicinal stiff silkworm should be carried out professionally in non-cocoon-producing areas, so as to avoid a devastating impact on cocoon silkworms. Rearing and processing can be carried out throughout the year. As for the feed given, apart from a small amount of mulberry leaves, more evening primrose, sword silkworm grass, white clover, cup plant and other substitutes for mulberry leaves can be added, to supplement the shortage of mulberry leaves and reduce rearing costs. The rearing and management techniques for mature silkworms are the same as conventional @#@250@#@, and they need to be reared until the fourth molt.

2. Making the fungal culture

Take 50 empty 500 ml infusion bottles, fill them with cooled boiled water, insert one test-tube mother culture of Beauveria bassiana into 10 bottles, let stand for 1 hour and use as stock culture, then insert each bottle of stock culture into 5 bottles respectively, thus making liquid fungal culture. If there is no test-tube mother culture, cooled boiled water can be used to wash naturally infected stiff silkworms, and the cooled boiled water after washing can also be used as liquid fungal culture.

3. Spraying inoculation

After the mature silkworms wake from the fourth molt and shed their skins, use a sprayer to evenly spray the liquid fungal culture onto the silkworms' bodies, to the extent that the skin looks moist. If the fungal strain has poor vigor, inoculation must be carried out within 1 hour after the liquid fungal culture is made.

4. Strengthening management

15-20 minutes after inoculating the fungal culture, begin feeding grass, once every 5-6 hours. Keep the indoor temperature at 20-30°C and the humidity above 90%, and by no means ventilate. Generally, 20-24 hours after inoculation, the silkworms begin to lose appetite, behave sluggishly, and their body surface gradually turns blue-brown with black spots of different shapes; by the 3rd-4th day, they begin to die; by the 5th-6th day, the death toll reaches 70%; by the 7th-8th day, all have died.

During the process of the silkworms dying, promptly pick out the dead silkworms and spread them in the rearing room, maintaining the same temperature and humidity, and let them fully stiffen, so as to increase the finished product rate and the content of medicinal elements. Once all meet the requirements for stiff silkworm, they can be sold on the Chinese medicinal materials market.