Chinese medicine mole cricket:

Explanatory names: mole cricket, celestial mole, mole cricket, fairy aunt, stone rat, Wu rat, native dog.

Odor: salty, cold, non-toxic.

Indications: 1. Edema (abdominal fullness, shortness of breath, inability to lie down). Use five mole crickets, roast them into powder, and take one penny with boiled water before meals. For the effect of smooth urination, add one penny of powdered kansui, one spoonful of pokeweed juice, and avoid salt for one hundred days. Another prescription: For those who have inconvenience and blockage, cut off the lower part of a mole cricket, grind it, and take half a dollar of water or magnet to relieve the problem. Another recipe: use one mole cricket and seven grape hearts, mash them, expose them overnight, dry them in the sun, grind them into powder, and drink them with wine. Another prescription: Collect mole crickets in summer and dry them in the shade, separate the heads, abdomen and tails, roast them and store them. To treat edema in the upper body, use seven from the head; to treat edema in the middle part of the body, use seven from the abdomen; to treat edema in the lower body, use seven from the tail and rice. Take it first and send the wine down.

2. Abdominal edema. Use mole crickets to heat them up and eat ten of them every day. Another recipe: use three qian each of Euphorbia gebra, Daphne genkwa, Kansui, and Rhubarb, and grind them into powder. Take seven mole crickets, add mashed green onions, bake them on new tiles, remove the wings and feet, and cut each one into two halves. When the edema on the left side is reduced, roast and grind seven slices of the left side of the insect and add two qian of the above-mentioned powder. At dawn, stir it up with Asparagus leaves and Asparagus decoction. Three days later, take seven tablets on the right side of the insect according to this method.

3. Nasal drainage (head and facial mastoma is severe). Use a mole cricket. Take two and a half minutes of light powder, grind it into powder, take a small amount at a time, put it into the nose, and the yellow water will drain out.

4. Shilin is painful. Use seven mole crickets and two ounces of salt, bake them on new tiles and grind them into powder. Take one spoonful each time and serve with warm wine.

5. Inability to defecate or defecate. Use seven mole crickets and seven dung beetles each, take the head of the male and the body of the female, bake them on the tiles and grind them into powder. Take the decoction of acanthus peel and drink it. Extremely effective.

6. The afterbirth remains. Use a mole cricket, boil it in water for twenty times, pour it in and drink it.

7. Tooth pain. Use a mole cricket, wrap it in the old dregs, wrap it in wet paper and simmer, remove the dregs, grind it into powder and apply to the affected area.

Also known as Lala cricket and native dog

Source: Gryllotalpa africana Palisot et Beaurois or the whole adult of G. unispina Saussure, an insect of the family Gryllotalpa africana. They are caught in summer and autumn, scalded with boiling water and dried in the sun.

The nature and flavor are salty and cold. A little poisonous. Returns to the bladder, large intestine, and small intestine meridians.

The main function is to diuresis and reduce swelling. Used for edema, ascites, and dysuria.

Usage and dosage: 3 to 5 pieces, roast and grind into powder, take with rice wine or warm boiled water.

Be careful not to take it if you are physically weak or pregnant.

Remarks (1) It is used for real diseases such as abdominal edema and difficulty in urination. It can be combined with Euphorbia, Daphne, etc. If used to treat anuria, mole crickets can be roasted, ground into pieces while hot, and mixed with rice wine or boiled water.

Excerpt from "Compilation of National Chinese Herbal Medicine"