Why are Locusts so Powerful?
John Doe is a author, member of the Beijing Work Association
Since December 12, 2019, there have been the most severe locust plagues in Kenya in 70 years, and the most severe locust plagues in Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years. In early 2020, 4000 billion locusts surged from Africa into Asia, forming a disaster in India, and affecting countries including Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Iran, Yemen, Oman, India, Pakistan, etc. According to reports, Kenya has about 105,000 acres of land affected. India has 555,000 acres of farmland damaged, with losses exceeding hundreds of billions of rupees.Why do such inconspicuous insects become so powerful?
There are many insects, why are locusts a disaster?
Locusts are the common name for Orthoptera order Locusts, distributed in most areas of the world except Antarctica. Locusts are roughly divided into two types: East Asian locusts and Asian locusts. African desert locusts are mainly brown locusts (Locustana pardalina) and red-winged locusts (Nomadacris septemfasciata), and belong to different subspecies compared to Chinese locusts.Locusts can make sounds, relying on the friction between the hind legs of the leg segment and the outer edge of the forewings, but some species with no wings or extremely degenerate wings make sounders. Locusts have a particularly strong reproductive ability, producing 60-80 eggs at a time. When laying eggs, they insert their bellies into the soil, and it is impossible to find them on the surface. Locusts are incomplete metamorphosis insects, including eggs, larvae, and adults. Locust larvae are called hoppers, and do not become pupae like butterflies. Locusts are very strong, and one locust swarm can have as many as 4000000 locusts, and can eat the equivalent of 3.5 million people's food in one day.How to process with low pollution?
In ancient China, locust plagues were the most frequent in the world. Since ancient times, locust plagues, floods and droughts have been known as the three major disasters of Chinese agriculture. From the Zhou and Qin Han periods to the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were 800 major locust plagues, with 2-3 plagues occurring every 2-3 years, and 5-7 plagues occurring every 5-7 years. As early as the 'Great Field' in the 'Songs of Tang' there was a record: 'Remove the mormon, remove the locust thief, no harm to my young crops. The ancestors of the field have gods, give them fire.' In the Han Dynasty, influenced by 'Heaven and Man are in harmony', people believed that there were locust gods in the sky. In the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty of the Tang Dynasty (716), the governor of Shandong, Yao Chong, took measures such as 'burning fire at night, digging pits on the side, and burying locusts as you burn' to exterminate the locusts. However, with the large population density today, it is not appropriate to simply burn. Therefore, it is not suitable.As a major food country, many people ask whether locusts can be eaten. In the central part of Somalia, residents have already started eating locusts. The larvae can mature in 20 days, and if 'eating' to eliminate them, their growth speed is faster than their lives. Currently, there are two ways to eliminate locustsFirst is 'biological control' to introduce natural enemies, and the other is 'chemical control'Spraying.
In 2020, Zhejiang Province once dispatched 30,000 cherry valley ducks by plane to Xinjiang to eliminate locusts. By the end of August, at least 100,000 mu of high-quality grasslands in Xinjiang were completely covered by locusts. At that time, Xinjiang also invested five times more than the ducks, but the chickens were not as voracious as the ducks. In addition, chickens are more manageable than ducks, and they are more adaptable to wild survival, with stronger foraging, survival, grazing and drought resistance. These ducks not only ate locusts but also provided a large amount of meat for the people of China. Besides poultry, there were also artificially attracted pink starlings to feed on locusts in Xinjiang. Other locust natural enemies, such as frogs, lizards, predatory insects, parasitic bees, parasitic flies and plants that can attract their natural enemies, can also be used in biological control. Someone suggested that there is also a microsporidian (Microsporidia or Microspora) parasite, which is the enemy of locusts. They parasitize the skin and muscles of insects and fish, and are also found in the bodies of and some other invertebrates. They are highly contagious and can kill a large number of locusts. However, this stuff is difficult to see and may cause unexpected events.
Source of pictures: Central Television News Client, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs
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