On the 17th of last month, the Tianjin Baodi Fishery Administration Department received a report from volunteers that there were seven or eight boats that repeatedly fished for red bugs in the Ji Canal, and the staff rushed to the scene at the first time, as soon as they appeared, these boats immediately went to the other side of the river, and ran away in the blink of an eye, and this place belongs to the jurisdiction of Tangshan City, Hebei Province, so it brings greater difficulties to law enforcement, and also provides an opportunity for lawbreakers. According to volunteers, these illegally fished red bug boats were found as early as October, and as the weather gets colder, these boats only increase unabated, and if they are not stopped in time, they will become even more rampant.
Coincidentally, in May this year, the Huaishang District Court of Bengbu City, Anhui Province, ruled on a case related to illegal fishing for red worms, and the defendants Fang Mou, Peng Bao and 6 others, on November 23, 2019, used a mechanical fishing vessel to capture the larvae of the family Panaceae (commonly known as "red worms") in natural waters, which were found by law enforcement officers and seized 41.5 kilograms of red worms.
Since 2018, the state has increased its law enforcement of the fishing for red worms, according to the ministry of agriculture and rural affairs of the current "illegal fishing cases involved in the identification (identification) of the articles involved in the case and aquatic biological resources damage assessment and restoration measures (trial)", its behavior on the river ecological environment is extremely harmful, Anhui Normal University relevant departments issued appraisal conclusions, according to the actual total value of the catch 40 times was fined 66,400 yuan, and 3,000 yuan appraisal fee. Later, many departments released more than 10,000 fish fry and more than 200 kilograms of snails in the section of the river where red worms were caught, and planted more than 1,000 aquatic plants to promote ecological restoration.
Why do these people go to great lengths to risk breaking the law to catch tiny red worms? The so-called unprofitable early, the original growth in the bottom of the inconspicuous little red worm, can be described as a good channel for some people to "get rich", it is understood that these ships driving in the Tianjin Ji Canal, each boat can catch at least dozens of pounds a night, good luck can even reach more than 100 pounds, and the purchase price of the middleman is 10 to 30 yuan per kilogram, in some areas, especially when the supply is scarce, it can even sell to 40 yuan per kilogram, so one night can earn 2000 ~ 4000 yuan, When you are particularly lucky, you can pick up ten thousand yuan in one night!
For the average layman, this is very incredible, looks a little disgusting little red worm, why is it worth so much money? Red worms are also called rocking mosquito larvae, it is not a single species, the world's known insects about 5,000 species, because they can live in low-oxygen fertile waters, so the body is rich in heme, showing blood red. In many waters, the number of red worms accounts for 50% to 90% of the total number of aquatic benthic animals, so it is a basic part of the food chain and a good source of food for many aquatic animals, especially aquatic seedlings.
Coupled with the rich nutrition in the body of red worms, dry matter accounts for 1.4% of the volume, of which protein content accounts for 41% to 62% of dry matter, fat accounts for 2% to 8%, calories of 4 calories / g, occupies a pivotal position in the high-end aquarium market, known as the world's best tropical fish live feed. In addition, red worms with a strong fishy smell, for the fishing tackle industry, is an important commodity bait fishy additives, for many people who like to fish, live bait red worms are the last trick, the effect is more than the universal bait earthworm, especially in winter when the water temperature is low, is the only magic weapon to pry open the light mouth fish!
In the case of excessive demand, the price has been high, there are interests in trading, there are trades and harms, not to mention that some people specialize in breeding red worms, for wild red worms, its fishing can be described as one of the benefits! As a typical "black industry", fishing for red worms is the lowest level of this industry, Wang Fugui (pseudonym) is a member of the fishing army, his main business is a worker, working in a factory in the county, the days are plain, the wages are simple, until one day, he has one more side business, that is, fishing for red worms, whenever the night comes, it is time to make quick money!
Although the smelly gutters of red worms are unusually unpleasant, they are the happiest when counting money, according to the different seasons, the vendors buy red worms from his hands at a price of 10 to 30 yuan per kilogram, and the rich can catch dozens of pounds in one night, and sometimes even catch hundreds of pounds, which is much stronger than the poor salary! So he has been insisting that the money earned in the hard months can even exceed the income of the main business!
But in recent years, the rich have been worried and restrained in catching red worms, in addition to the continuous crackdown of the state on the fishing of red worms, there is also the risk of infection in the fishing process, and all this happens to the friends of the rich. When a friend used a net to filter the sediment and screen red worms, he was scratched by an unknown object, shed a lot of blood, did not feel anything at the time, but afterwards found that he was infected, and rested for several months before recovering! In the end, he had no choice but to try to engage in the acquisition of red worms, and his re-sale value may rise to 80 to 200 yuan per kilogram, and he bought a house and changed cars in a few years! Another friend was also infected when he came into contact with red worms, his hands were extremely itchy, accompanied by labor pain, and then puffiness appeared, which took a long time to recover, and he never touched red worms again.
From this, we can see that when in contact with red worms, there is a risk of infection, and some people even think that fish caught with red worms cannot be eaten, because when he raised these fish at home, he found that he was also infected and died. Are red worms really so "poisonous"?
Red worms are also called hemoglobinos because of the red body, for dipterans, the whole body length of 2 ~ 30mm, cylindrical, widely exist in freshwater waters, especially some odorous smelly ditches, sewage tanks, densely packed with red worms, and they mainly feed on algae, small plankton, organic debris in dirty water, so red worms are also called "disgusting" and "dirty", are treated as "dirty things", and even think that it can absorb toxins in the water, so as to accumulate in their own bodies. Once a person has contact, they will be infected.
In fact, seeing is not necessarily the truth, the truth is actually the opposite, that is to say, red worms are not only not the so-called "poison", or the "indicator organisms" of water pollution in the eyes of scientific researchers, the reason why they can live in sewage is not that they cause water pollution, but the eutrophication of polluted water bodies, so that red worms can show explosive growth in a short period of time, nature is also through the decomposition of organic debris by red worms, to alleviate and curb the continued deterioration of water quality, so as to achieve the effect of purifying water quality. This is also why there are few red worms in the clear and thin waters. If you've ever seen farmed red worms, you know that you should use organic fecal fermentation to fatten the water quality beforehand, and when the water quality is purified, you must also fertilize the water again.
Another reason is that red worms collide with red worm disease, although they both have two identical words, but there is no intersection in essence, red worm disease is actually an acute fever infected by the bite of the chigger mite larvae (a parasite) with the oriental body of scrub worm disease. The reason why red worms can infect the human body is not caused by itself, but may be because the tender and nutrient-rich epidermis, in the process of salvage, filtration, packaging, transportation, and then to the terminal, contact with too many people and things, resulting in a large number of bacteria. No matter how clean the human body is, there will be many bacteria on the body, not to mention red worms, so there is a risk of infection. Some people may also be allergic to red worms, indicating that there is a problem with their constitution, but this is not a reason to impose the crime of "poison" on the head of red worms.
Especially for the group of anglers, when using a fish hook to pierce the red worm, if you are not careful, you will prick your finger, and the risk of infection is greater, and some places for people to fish, will also ban the red worm, ostensibly because the red worm is a "poison", will pollute the water source, infect the disease as the reason. In fact, as mentioned above, red worms are fish from snacks to large food, especially these farmed fish, but also from the beginning of the fry can not be separated from the red worms, and may even form a certain bias, if you use red worms to fish, then not to say burst, burst protection is certain, but this is the most unwilling for fish pond owners to see, and those who sponsor fishing competitions of commodity bait merchants will not agree. On the contrary, in some developed countries, they will also encourage the use of natural bait such as red worms and earthworms to fish, which can reduce the pollution of water quality by chemical commodity bait.
Some people may wonder again, if the use of red worms is encouraged, then mosquitoes will not increase? Red worms are indeed the larvae of the mosquitoes, but the mosquitoes and the mosquitoes that drink blood and bite people in our home are not a species, although the mosquitoes are similar to them, but there is no mouth (needle) that can bite people, so it does not have the function of sucking, does not bite, does not suck blood, does not spread diseases, so whether it is breeding or using red worms to fish, it will not cause mosquito flooding.
Red worms hatch from the eggs, they mainly exist in the form of "egg bands", independent of each other, once they become red worms, they will find another source, so even if they are swarms of red worms, they do not contain eggs, so it is not reliable to say that they are parasitic by red worm eggs. Especially for people who fish with red worms, after a series of cleaning steps, even if there are worm eggs will be removed, we need to pay attention to the bacteria carried by red worms. The reason why the fish die after eating the red worms is most likely to be the use of red worm bait made of commercial chemical additives, and the fish dies because it is difficult to digest, so these chemical components are also used as much as possible in the fishing process.