CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How to eliminate locusts

Locusts, commonly known as "grasshoppers", cause great harm to agriculture, forestry, and animal husbandry. So, how to eliminate locusts? Here I will share with you the methods of eliminating locusts, I hope it can help you!

The best way to eliminate locusts: agricultural control

⑴ Develop water conservancy to ensure that there is no disaster from drought or flood.

⑵ Reclaim large areas of wasteland and plant crops to change the habitat of locusts and reduce the area of ​​the outbreak base.

⑶ Plant trees and afforestation to change the microclimate in locust areas and reduce the number of suitable places for locusts to lay eggs and reproduce.

⑷ Improve farming and cultivation techniques to control locust eggs, adapt to local conditions, change crop layout, and reduce locust damage.

Biological control

⑴ In locust-affected areas, use highly effective and low-toxic agricultural and biological pesticides to protect the predatory natural enemies in the locust areas. Chickens, ducks, geese and other poultry can also be raised on the hillside for prevention and control.

⑵ Apply microsporidia over a large area.

Natural Enemies

Natural enemies of locusts: frogs

The natural enemies of locusts are mainly frogs and birds. Frogs, in particular, live in the same type of ecological environment as locusts - low-lying land, ponds, ditches, etc. with reeds and weeds are good places for them to live. Therefore, frogs are the vanguard of restricting the reproduction of locusts. According to statistics, a frog can kill more than 10,000 pests in one summer; a marsh frog eats an average of 50 pests a day, and up to 266 pests; even a clumsy toad can catch nearly 10,000 pests in three months of summer! According to this calculation, as long as there is an average of one frog in two square meters of cropland, it is enough to suppress the survival of locusts.

Birds are the natural enemies of locusts

Birds need to constantly take food during their lives and obtain energy from food to carry out various physiological activities.

Carbohydrates are the main source of heat for birds. The body temperature of birds is higher than that of humans. Birds also consume a lot of calories by flying, jumping, and hunting constantly. Therefore, a large amount of feed is needed, otherwise it will affect the growth and breeding of birds.

Birds need fat, such as seeds of various oil crops: rapeseed, sunflower seeds, sesame, pine nuts, etc. Fat can maintain the body temperature of birds, protect internal organs and keep the luster of feathers.

Some birds are omnivorous, while others are insect-eaters. They play a big role in protecting production and human health. A nest of great tits can eat about 2,000 insects during the half-month brooding period; a nest of swallows can eat 1,200 locusts in a month; a woodpecker can kill hundreds of pests hiding in tree trunks in a day, and can also protect 90 acres of forest around it from pests. Swallows, great tits and cuckoos can also kill a large number of rodents.

Bird resources are a huge natural wealth of the country, and they play an important role in maintaining ecological balance. If the number of beneficial birds in agriculture and forestry decreases, it will cause insect and rodent pests, which will harm agriculture and forestry and bring serious harm to human life and production.

Birds that eat locusts need to prey on a large number of locusts during the brooding stage. For example, a pair of common swallows and a nest of chicks can eat more than 16,200 locusts per month. Birds that eat locusts include swallows, white-winged gulls, field wrens, etc., especially swallows.

The harm of locusts Locusts are an important part of the agricultural, forestry and animal husbandry ecosystems. Many harmful locust species can cause varying degrees of harm to agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry. There are more than 10,000 species of locusts in the world, of which about 300 species can cause harm to agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry. Locusts can occur in all parts of the world except Antarctica and the Eurasian continent north of 550 degrees north latitude. The area where locusts occur all year round in the world is 46.8 million km2, and 1/8 of the world's population is often harassed by locust plagues. The most serious locust in the world is the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria, of which the maximum spread area can reach 28 million km2, including all or part of 66 countries, accounting for about 20% of the world's land area, and the affected population accounts for more than 1/10 of the world's population. In 1971, my country collected scattered desert locusts in the Zhangmu area of ​​Nyalam County, Tibet Autonomous Region.

There are more than 900 known locust species in my country, of which about 60 species can cause harm to agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry. The locusts that can cause great harm to Gramineae plants mainly include East Asian migratory locust Locusta migratoria manilensis, rice locust Ox-ya spp., sugarcane locust Hieroglyphus spp. and sharp-winged locust Epacromius spp., etc. The species that harm crops such as beans, potatoes and sweet potatoes include short-winged locust Calliptamus abpeviatus Ikonnikov, benzene locust Haplotropis puneriana Saussure, negative locust Aractomorpha spp., etc. Cotton locusts Chondracris rosearosea and negative locust can harm cotton. Bamboo locust Ceracris spp. can seriously harm bamboo forests. In the vast pastoral areas, there are many species that harm forage, mainly including Siberian locust Gomphocerus sibiricus, Dociostaurus spp., Oedaleus spp., Omocestus spp., Chorthippus spp., Bryodemas spp., and Italian locust Callipta musilicaus, which can seriously harm forage and crops and directly affect the development of agriculture and animal husbandry when they occur in large numbers. According to the records of Chinese history books over thousands of years, the locusts that cause devastating disasters in agriculture are mainly migratory locusts, and it is believed that the chance or correlation of drought and migratory locusts occurring in the same year is the greatest, followed by drought in the previous year and floods followed by droughts, when locusts form in large numbers; locust disasters and water and drought disasters often occur one after another, alternating, and have always been the three major natural disasters that seriously threaten my country's agricultural production and affect people's lives.

Since the 1980s, affected by abnormal global climate change, disrepair or improper construction of some water conservancy projects, and sudden changes in agricultural ecology and environment, the East Asian migratory locust has frequently occurred in the Huanghuaihai region and the southwest of Hainan Island, with an annual occurrence area of ​​about 1 to 1.5 million hm2, covering more than 100 counties in nine provinces, and agricultural production has been seriously threatened. In the 12 years from 1985 to 1996, the East Asian migratory locust occurred year after year in locust areas such as the Yellow River Beach, Hainan Island, and Tianjin. In the autumn of 1985, a high-density gregarious swarm of East Asian migratory locusts in Beidagang, Tianjin, ate more than 100,000 mu of reed leaves and hundreds of mu of corn cob leaves, and took off and migrated south at noon on September 20. The locust swarm was about 30 kilometers wide from east to west, and landed in five counties of Cangxian, Huanghua, Haixing, Yanshan and Mengcun in Hebei Province and two farms in Zhongjie Dagang, affecting an area of ​​2.5 million mu. This is the first inter-provincial migration of gregarious East Asian migratory locusts since the founding of New China.

In 1998, the summer locusts of the East Asian migratory locusts occurred in eight provinces, including Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Tianjin, covering an area of ​​more than 800,000 hectares. In 1999, the summer locusts of the East Asian migratory locusts occurred in nine provinces, including Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Tianjin, covering an area of ​​more than 800,000 hectares. The locusts ravaged Henan again, with an affected area of ​​2.375 million mu. In some areas, the locust density reached more than 4,000 locusts per square meter. The large area and high insect population density were unprecedented in Henan in the past 25 years. Although the damage has been controlled, it is necessary to strengthen the elimination and monitoring of the egg-laying areas of the remaining adults in summer, accurately understand and grasp the occurrence of autumn locusts and the development trends of water and drought and meteorological dynamics, and timely carry out prevention and control of autumn locusts and third-generation migratory locusts to reduce the area and number of migratory locusts.

The Asian migratory locust is mainly distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, and certain river valleys and lakeside areas in the north of Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi, and Hebei provinces. The Tacheng area of ​​Xinjiang suffered from gregarious migratory locust damage from 1983 to 1984 and in 1986. In 1987, 46 swarms of gregarious migratory locusts occurred in the Altay area, with an average density of 1,000 to 2,000 heads/m2, covering an area of ​​about 51,500 hm2. The affected area of ​​locusts in Xinjiang reached 30.05 million mu, and the density in the Tacheng Altay area reached tens of thousands per square meter.

Tibetan migratory locusts occurred in 45 places in Tibet between 1928 and 1952. From 1846 to 1857, there were 12 consecutive years of locust plagues, affecting 18 regions. In severe cases, crops failed to be harvested for consecutive years, and barley and wheat were completely wiped out, and grasslands were completely barren. In 1970, 1974, 1979, 1988 and 1991, Tibetan migratory locusts broke out in Linzhi, Milin, Bailang, Lhasa, Linzhou and Dagze, seriously affecting agricultural and animal husbandry production. On June 19, 1988, more than 1,000 mu of Tibetan migratory locusts occurred in Qiangna District, Milin County, and flew over the Yarlung Zangbo River to harm barley. In 1999, high-density migratory locust swarms also occurred in parts of Lhasa, Shigatse and other places.

Since the 1980s, rice locusts have occurred in more than 4.6 million square meters in some rice-growing areas in more than 10 provinces in my country. Bamboo locusts have damaged more than 3 million square meters of bamboo forests in the south. As for the locusts in the grasslands of each season in the northern pastoral areas and the agricultural and pastoral transition areas of my country, their occurrence characteristics are many species, high density, and the maximum occurrence area can reach more than 20 million square meters in 1985. According to incomplete statistics, in 1985, the annual disaster-affected area is about 4.6 million square meters, and the actual prevention and control area is about 1 million square meters. In 1998, high-density locust swarms occurred in the Ili and Altai areas of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in my country's pastoral areas and the agricultural and pastoral transition areas, as well as the grasslands of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, covering an area of ​​more than millions of hectares. In 1999, the locust outbreak area reported in Ili, Altai, Changji, Balikun and other regions of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region was about 40 million mu, and the main locust species were Italian locust, Halberd locust, Siberian locust, black-striped locust, etc., with an outbreak density of 600 to 8,000 per square meter, and in some areas it could be as high as 10,000 per square meter. Various locust areas have adopted various methods such as ultra-low dose preparations, microsporidia, attracting red starlings and raising chickens to control locusts.

In addition, in 1984, the outbreak of the Australian locust Chortoicetesterminifera alone caused direct economic losses of 1 to 2 million US dollars in Australia. Since the end of 1985, many locust species have been rampant in many African countries and regions, causing extremely serious losses. In 17 states in the western United States, grassland losses caused by steppe locusts are about 8 million US dollars each year. In 1999, more than 1 million square meters of farmland in more than 20 states in central Russia, eastern and western southern Siberia, near the Caspian Sea, and bordering Kazakhstan were attacked by locusts.

People who read the method of eliminating locusts also read:

1. What are the methods of raising locusts?

2. Locust breeding technology

3. How to raise crickets in large quantities

4. The simplest way to catch birds

5. How do insects make sounds?