The protagonist wants brighter lighting tools, but also dislikes the presence of ant excrement in the room, regardless of whether it emits an unpleasant smell. However, the brighter fluorescent bacteria grow on the feces of male ants and queen ants, which have a stronger smell.
But fluorescent bacteria are the only underground light source for ants. Fires cannot be popularized and electric lights cannot be invented.
Fortunately, the protagonist got inspiration from the practice of human cultivation of fungi and cultivated clean fluorescent bacteria, thereby solving this problem.
Fungi are commonly called mushrooms. They are different from plants. Plants can perform photosynthesis to obtain nutrients. Mushrooms do not have chlorophyll and cannot produce nutrients themselves. They can only use their hyphae to reach into the soil or rotten wood to absorb them. Ready nutrients to sustain life.
Therefore, mushrooms often grow in warm, humid and organic places. In order to obtain nutrients, mushrooms are widely distributed throughout the earth. They are most abundant in forest deciduous areas, as well as in patches of mixed trees and shrubs at the edge of forests, grasslands, fences, dead wood, etc., and even on dung piles.
Under natural conditions, although the yield of mushrooms is not low, there are too many types, and many mushrooms are poisonous. The appearance of some poisonous mushrooms is very similar to edible fungi, and even many veterans have difficulty distinguishing them. Many gourmets die every year from eating delicious wild mushrooms.
After people's exploration, they gradually mastered a set of techniques for artificially growing mushrooms, and concentrated on planting some safe edible fungi, which has the advantages of high yield, good safety, and easy management and collection.
Take the common shiitake mushrooms as an example. It is said that the first person to cultivate shiitake mushrooms was Wu Sangong, a native of Longyan Village, Longxi Township, Longquan County in the Southern Song Dynasty. In the history of human shiitake mushroom cultivation, the earliest and most complete document that can be verified was in 1209 AD. That is the record in the "Longquan County Chronicle" compiled by He Dan in the second year of Jiading in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Modern cultivation of shiitake mushrooms mainly operates in the following ways:
First of all, set up a mushroom farm. It is best to avoid the north wind, be sunny, have good resources, be close to water sources, have shade, have lots of gravel, and be on a gentle slope that is slightly acidic. Remove litter, bark, roots, etc. from the site, level the land, build a shade shed (2m high), and sprinkle lime on the ground for disinfection.
The second step is to choose a suitable mushroom tree.
, then the trees are felled, logs dried and limbs pruned.
The third step is artificial vaccination. Generally, vaccination can be done at temperatures between 5 and 20°C, with the monthly average temperature around 10°C being the most suitable. Drill holes in the treated mushroom tree segments and insert the bacteria. After inoculation, seal immediately to prevent the invasion of rainwater and miscellaneous bacteria and insect pests, reduce the evaporation of water in the body, and protect the growth of mycelium.
The fourth step is to pile up the fungi. Place the inoculated pieces of wood on the mushroom field in a timely manner for stacking. Then strengthen management, including moisturizing and heat preservation, checking the survival rate of the bacteria, turning the piles, shading, and preventing pests, diseases, and miscellaneous bacteria. Work.
The fifth step is to set up the frame. After the segment wood is inoculated, in warm areas, usually about 8-9 months in late winter and spring, the mycelium will be basically mature; but in cold areas or the mushroom wood is too large, it will take two summers for the mycelium to develop to the point of fruiting. . At this time, the mushroom wood should be moved to a place suitable for the formation of fruiting bodies, and the mushroom wood should be lifted up and allowed to produce mushrooms.
To set up the frame, you must first drive the wooden stakes and place the crossbars about 65cm above the ground, with the two sides arranged in a herringbone shape and staggered. After the mushrooms are scattered, pay attention to replenishing water.
The last step is harvesting. Shiitake mushrooms cultivated in Duanmu can be inoculated once and produce mushrooms for many years.
It is also possible to carry out substitute cultivation without using segmented wood, which is to use various agricultural and forestry by-products as the main raw materials, such as sawdust, etc., and add appropriate amounts of auxiliary materials to make culture media to produce various edible fungi.
No matter what kind of fungi you are cultivating, the most important thing is to maintain temperature and humidity and prepare a culture medium. Underground with constant relative temperature and humidity is suitable for cultivating fungi. What the protagonist needs is to find a culture medium that can replace ant droppings, so that he can perfectly grow fluorescent bacteria that are originally adapted to the ant nest environment.
After some experiments, he found that fluorescent bacteria planted on fat patches grew best and had the highest brightness.
Thinking about it, among all types of food, fat is the undisputed leader in terms of energy density. It is no wonder that the fluorescent bacteria that have been living on relatively barren feces would like this culture medium.
If it were placed in other ant nests, no place would be so wealthy, using precious fat to cultivate lowly fluorescent bacteria that can survive by providing feces.
But the protagonist has a large-scale mealworm farm, which can provide a lot of insect fat. The fat is cut into cubes and roasted to reduce the size, making for a suitable medium. The transplanted fluorescent bacteria can grow extremely luxuriantly on it and maintain light for more than a month.
In this way, the protagonist's bedroom finally uses a relatively clean light source. Only here can such a luxurious light source be used. Fluorescent bacteria in other places are still cultivated using traditional methods.
On the two sides of the protagonist's courtyard, there are two large nests respectively. One nest houses Hua Mulan and other guards, and the other nest houses a group of worker ants dedicated to serving the protagonist.
Hua Mulan is the first big-headed ant to follow the protagonist. She has been following the protagonist not long after the protagonist emerged from pupa. Now Hua Mulan has entered the middle age of ants, and her physical condition has declined, but the protagonist still takes her with him.
In the guard team, many soldier ants are old acquaintances of the protagonist. For example, Force 3 and Guard 1 were the ones who accompanied the protagonist when he first left "Dongyang City". There were a total of 24 soldier ants at that time, but so Over a long period of time, some died in battle, some died of old age, and some Zhuang 1 returned to Lao Wang and then disappeared after being infected by parasitic bacteria. In the end, only four soldier ants remained with the protagonist.
The protagonist also treats these old subordinates kindly and organizes them into the Guards Squad. The protagonist's Guard Squad rarely participates in fierce battles nowadays, which is just a good time for these subordinates to retire.
As the protagonist does not plan to leave "Dongyang City" in the short term, the guards who often accompany the protagonist everywhere can finally have a good rest.
The worker ants on the other side who serve the protagonist are all carefully selected smart worker ants. These worker ants are selected as soon as they emerge from their pupae. They are not allowed to do dirty work such as cultivating fluorescent bacteria or digging soil, because their large jaws are used to transport food for the protagonist, and there cannot be any pollution. This is the protagonist's only persistence in mysophobia after traveling through time and becoming an ant.
A road in the courtyard opposite the gate leads to the protagonist's bedroom.
Only the protagonist lives in the room permanently. On weekdays, whether they are guards or worker ants, they can only stay for a short time.
As soon as you enter this room, you will find that the nest here is not round, but a standard rectangle!
