"If you do not see the sun in the sky, if you sift the dust and ashes with ten thousand cloths."
Twilight is red and red, stacked several feet and buried together.
The bark and bamboo are peeled away, and the roots of the grass valley are gone. "
--Song Wang Ling, "Dream Locust"
For the world, 2020 is the beginning of a "nightmare". Although Our country has basically killed the virus through concerted efforts, it has not yet been fully controlled around the world; wave after wave has not yet been successful, the new crown has not yet been completed, and the food crisis has intensified again.
According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition of the World released by the United Nations, nearly 690 million people suffered from hunger in 2019, and this figure will increase by another 130 million by the end of 2020, equivalent to 1/9 of the world's population being hungry. Why is the food crisis worsening? Because of the plague of locusts.
At the beginning of 2020, Africa erupted in a rare large-scale locust plague that had not been seen in decades, and hundreds of millions of locusts were overwhelming, especially over East Africa, almost reaching the point of obscuring the clouds and avoiding the moon. African countries such as Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya have been severely affected, and West Asia and South Asia have also been implicated.
Speaking of locust plagues, in fact, China is not unfamiliar at all, China has been a model of intensive farming since ancient times, and the frequent occurrence of locust plagues in ancient times has had a great impact on social stability, basically those periods of great turmoil in ancient times, such as the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, such as the Yellow Nest Uprising, are accompanied by the figure of locust plagues. The rout of the Ming Dynasty actually had the role of a locust plague, and from the 9th year of Chongzhen to the 15th year of Chongzhen, the locust plague occurred in 697 counties across the country from south to north without exception.
According to the statistics of "History of China's Rescue of The Wasteland", the large-scale locust plague broke out about 8.8 years in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the outbreak was more frequent during the Two Song Dynasties, which was 3.5 years, and the Yuan Dynasty was more difficult due to official inaction, basically 1.6 years will break out once, the real crops are not connected, the people are hungry, and the Ming and Qing dynasties are about 2.8 years After a large-scale locust plague.
According to the "History of Entomology in China", there have been more than 500 large-scale locust plagues in the more than 2600 years of Chinese history.
Locust outbreaks have been so frequent in Chinese history, so how did the ancients respond? Don't underestimate the wisdom of the ancients, these three "earth methods" they came up with have been passed down for thousands of years.
First, the combination of government decrees and manpower to control locusts
In ancient times, in fact, the people generally did not dare to make a big move when facing the locust plague, believing that catching the locust would cause dissatisfaction among the "locust gods", and the locust plague would continue to spread. But if the locust plague is not removed, all the food will be wasted, and leaders will need to do something at this time.
The "Zhenguan Politicians" records that In order to get rid of the locusts among the people, Li Shimin personally took the lead in directly catching a locust to eat, so during the Tang Dynasty, the people also formed the custom of eating locusts; Ming Chengzu Zhu Di formulated the "Locust Catching Order": "There are divisions in the order of the officials to write everywhere, and people on business trips in the spring patrol the territory, and when there are locusts that are just born, try to catch them, and make sure to do everything possible." If it is a crime to sit idly by and cause The Man to be a patient, if the Second Divisional Officer does not exercise strict supervision, it is also a crime to be punished by the patrol and arrester to which he belongs. "
In addition to the leading role of the ruler is not enough, but also to promulgate effective preventive measures, the Tang Dynasty Prime Minister Yao Chong, in addition to the artificial beating and the method of digging a large pit and burying mentioned in the "On Balance", created the incineration method, which is tailored according to the characteristics of locusts "locusts fly on the wall, and the night must go to the fire", but in the process of implementation, attention must be paid to fire prevention.
At the same time, it is also necessary to "find it when the winter sun is not raining or snowing, be sure to search for strength, and set up a sign at the end of the digging place in order to find the spring." Spring has seen no children, and in early summer, I should still look at it again to prevent omission. "That is, digging up the insecticide eggs in the soil is a good way to kill insects from the source."
2. Expand the area of paddy fields
The Ming Dynasty politician and scientist Xu Guangqi's "Eliminating Locusts" has clouds: "The land has high and low, the rain has partial quilts, and the flood and drought are disasters, and there are still many places to be spared." But the drought is extreme and the locusts are exhausted, and the grass and trees are exhausted in thousands of miles, or the cattle and horses are exhausted, and the harm is particularly tragic, and the water and drought are also too much. "
To put it bluntly, locusts generally break out in arid areas, if the area of paddy fields is expanded, and the dryland is changed to paddy fields, it is naturally possible to inhibit the production of locusts, and locusts generally like to grow according to grass in paddy fields.
This is what he wrote in the "Complete Book of Agricultural Politics": "Although Lutian lives in the heavens, although manpower is repaired, from time to time, the merits of a year are abandoned; the system of paddy fields is made up of manpower, but it can be exhausted, and the harm of insect plagues is less than that of Lu, and since the paddy fields are profitable, they are not incorporeal with Lu Tian." " basis.
3. Cultivate natural enemies
4. Do locusts have natural enemies? Of course, those ducks, geese, and even frogs, toads, etc., all eat locusts. Paddy fields can contain some locusts, raise ducks and geese in paddy fields, and eat some locusts; coupled with the fact that paddy fields are easy to attract frogs, toads and other organisms, and then eat some locusts, accumulate less into more, locusts have not been effectively treated?