preface
At the end of 2019, a terrible natural disaster was brewing in the East African region, that is
Locust plague
。
In February of the following year, the locusts formed a cover area in eastern Kenya
More than two thousand square kilometers
Swarms of locusts, they cover the sky and nibble on food. This terrible catastrophe has left East Africa within Kenya
More than 10 million
The people have been severely disturbed, the food has been eaten by locusts, and the people will face the tragic situation of no harvest and famine.
Terrible swarms of locusts can leap 150 kilometers a day, and this plague of locusts is already raging
Kenya, Somalia, Pakistan and India
Nearly twenty countries have had a serious impact on the local agricultural economy. And this is only the first wave of locust plagues, and the second wave of locust plagues is the first wave of numbers
20 times
That's a lot.
Locust plague in East Africa
Fortunately, the locust plague was eventually treated in a timely manner, did not spread to the whole world, and evolved into a worldwide "food crisis".
After reading the above text, you may wonder why the little locust is so terrible? What other major locust plagues have there been in history? In the face of locust plague, why did our people send chickens and ducks! So how did the chickens and ducks get rid of the locust plague?
Little locusts, great power
The only natural disaster that can be compared with natural disasters such as floods and droughts that destroy the world is the locust plague. Locusts are small, adults are only 30 to 40 mm, but they tend to flock in groups.
Win by quantity
locust
Agriculturally,
Locusts are arguably the world's largest pest
There are still many kinds of species, more than 10,000 kinds of sub-genera in the world, and there are more than one in China alone
More than a thousand kinds of locusts.
And of all the locusts,
Desert locusts
It should be said that it is the most destructive one. They are mainly found everywhere
The Western Desert region of Africa
An outbreak can quickly wipe out one-fifth of the world's land.
Therefore, for the whole world, locusts are simply plague-like existence, and can even put the army into a state of first-level alert, and even join forces with neighboring countries to fight locust plagues.
The main reason why locust plagues are so frightening is the following.
The first major factor is because
Locusts are too edible
The amount of food they eat is simply staggering; and secondly
Locusts are too capable of growing and have a super reproductive ability
, also has the survivability of the king level; the above two points eventually led to the extremely large number of locusts, covering the sky, hundreds or even thousands of square kilometers are all locusts,
There is no grass wherever it goes.
According to the calculation of locust habits, the lifespan of a locust is
3 months
At that time, they mainly ate agricultural and sideline cash crops
Corn, sorghum, wheat, sugar cane
And so on, are all kinds of staple foods that people must eat in their lives. whereas
A locust can lay three hundred eggs.
Locusts eat crops
According to the above data, for example, a locust can eat about a day
Two grams
Left or right grain, but one square kilometer of locusts can eat the food of thirty-five thousand people in a day, so what about ten square kilometers? What about a hundred square kilometers? What about a thousand square kilometers?
If you calculate it, you will find that when locusts are assembled into a plague, it takes only one day to make a country's agricultural hard work for a year be wasted, and a country's grain for a year is eaten, so the locust plague makes it impossible for people to sit still.
In fact, locusts do not gather in a large area, only three or two when they are very docile, but once they are gathered, the situation is completely different, they will become
Irritable and irritable
As soon as the locusts gathered, they were irritable
Some scientists once did such an experiment. Place no more than five locusts in a large, closed disk in a circular shape. In the beginning, the five locusts just played their own game, not interfering with each other and not talking to each other.
Until later, when locusts began to lay eggs, their numbers increased throughout the day. Gradually their flight becomes orderly, and they fly in the same direction around the disk. In particular, the greater the number, the more collectively targeted they are, and the more violent they are, the faster they fly, which is the terrible thing about locusts.
So why do so many locusts come together? This has to mention the physiological habits of locusts.
When locusts have no food to eat, they will eat each other. Locusts have weaknesses on the flanks, and when they expose their weaknesses, they are eaten by other locusts.
Locust weaknesses on the flanks
Therefore, in order not to expose their fragile flanks, locusts will choose to maintain a formation with other locusts to minimize the risk of being eaten by the same kind. This is also why locusts are more irritable and aggressive when they come together, because they are
If you want to eat the same kind, you are afraid of being eaten.
At the same time, their coming together means that they are more efficient and safer, which is why locusts choose to appear in swarms.
When locusts come together, their appearance also changes
Like what
The skin will change from green when alone to yellow in a group state, while the head will become larger and the legs will become shorter
。 It can also be seen from here that the status, personality and signs of the solitary locust and the gregarious locust are different.
Solitary locusts are not the same as gregarious locusts
The history of locust plagues in our country
China's land is vast and its agriculture is deeply rooted, so it has been inevitable to be attacked by locusts in history. Especially in ancient China, there were countless historical materials about locust infestation.
About the locust plague in our country, as early as
spring and autumn
The period is recorded. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu were fighting, and the weather at that time was also in a warm period, and once the climate was warmed, it would be dry for a long time without rain, and according to the chain effect, the long drought would be plagued by locusts. Therefore, in the two hundred years of the Eastern Han Dynasty alone, there was a locust plague of large and small sizes
More than 40 times.
By the time of the Tang Dynasty, even the rule of Zhenguan, which was praised by everyone in history, could not stop the locusts from raging. At the time
A rather terrifying locust plague broke out in the Shaanxi region
This directly leads to the people's grain harvest and the people's livelihood.
Ancient plagues of locusts
However, due to the lack of science and technology at that time, there were still superstitious elements, so Emperor Li Shimin specially did a ritual in Chang'an City, leaving a message of prayer for the fading of the invasion and the peace of the world:
"Man takes the valley as his destiny, and the people have had it, and he is giving it to one." But when you eat me, harm the people. ”
The data also records that in order to express his determination to lead his people to defeat the plague of locusts,
Emperor Li Shimin even directly grabbed a locust and ate it raw.
Even though the Tang Dynasty belonged to a rare era of prosperity in Chinese history, the locust plague almost ran through the tang dynasty emperors.
Every Tang emperor was plagued by locust plagues.
The film and television drama version of Li Shimin eats locusts
The gradual decline of the Tang Dynasty was followed by the rise of the Song Dynasty. The locust plague of the Song Dynasty was not as small as that of the Tang Dynasty, and the locust plague of the Song Dynasty can be said to be at the level of covering the sky.
This is entirely because at the end of the Tang Dynasty, China's territory was expanded to the south, and agriculture gradually arose in the south, and because the southern climate was warm enough and there was enough food, the density of the locust plague was also upgraded to a new height.
And the South hadn't invented it yet."
paddy field
Like the north, all are "dry land", and it is said that a long drought will meet the locust plague, and the locusts are particularly afraid of water and like drought, so
The dryland is simply a paradise for locusts.
dry land
And what is more interesting is that the demise of the Ming Dynasty has a very necessary connection with the locust plague.
In the last years of the Ming Dynasty,
There have been two plagues of locusts more than five years,
Moreover, the emperor at the end of the Ming Dynasty did nothing about it, and the people had no food to eat, so they were prone to class contradictions, which indirectly led to the frequent outbreak of peasant uprisings, so that the Ming Dynasty was officially broken and became history.
From here, it can be seen that in the history of feudal dynastic rule in china, the impact of locust plagues can be large or small. So how does China deal with locust plagues?
Displaced people during the ancient locust plague
The whole army out of the "chicken"
In the face of large and small locust plagues, people naturally came up with many ways, and gave the standard answer in the CCTV documentary "Chicken Herding and Controlling Locusts".
In the early 21st century, a locust plague occurred on the grasslands of the Hebei region. In order to stop the grassland locust plague, the state has given relevant policies -
Raise chickens and ducks
At that time, the state distributed chicken cubs to the people in the grassland areas free of charge, and special instructors who graduated from agricultural universities were also sent to the grasslands for relevant technical guidance.
According to the reality in the documentary, the herders who lived on the grassland at that time would also train the chicks, and the training cycle was ninety days, which was every day
Listen to the whistle to eat locust training
When the whistle rings, it's time for the chickens to eat.
Chickens eat locusts
So by the time the locusts were furious and wanted to invade the grassland crops, there was already a group of well-trained prairie chickens in droves, listening to the whistle and pecking deadly. In this way, before the locusts could stir up trouble, they had already been wiped out by the prairie chickens.
But what if the grass is too high? The Xinjiang region, for example, is facing this problem. Then you can send a longer neck
duck
A shining debut. And ducks are far more disciplined than chickens, and they can organize themselves in groups without even much training. Which "pest control" squad they belong to, the ducks can fully know in their hearts.
As long as the order is given, the ducks will use the duck paw to shoot the locust first, and then a straight and extended neck to catch the locust to eat, this set of actions is quite smooth. When the ducks have eaten the locusts, there will be organized and disciplined queues waiting for instructions from the farmers on the pasture, which is simply not too spectacular.
Put ducks to eat locusts
And now, the chicken and eggs of the farm are not sold in the market, and they are more popular with the public
"Hanging Out Chicken" and "Wandering Duck",
It is the free-range chickens and ducks that grow up in the countryside that eat insects, and it is said that these varieties of meat are better and more nutritious.
And the chickens and ducklings that have eaten locusts are the typical wandering series products, they
No pollution and no pollution
They are replenished with rich protein nutrition every day, and there are opportunities to walk on the grassland, so the eggs they lay are more nutritious and have higher meat value.
This not only helps farmers avoid locust plagues, but even
Brought up the economy of raising chickens and ducks on the pasture,
To make the peasants richer, it is simply a double eagle.
Drive the livestock economy
epilogue
Of course, chickens and ducks eating insects is only one of the ways, in modern society, locust disasters have been able to be effectively managed, people's developed scientific and technological level technology no longer need to fear locust disasters.
But the locust plague has brought a lot of wake-up call, and this and
Extreme climates
Inseparable. Because of the frequent occurrence of droughts and the absence of rain for a long time, a considerable number of locust swarms will breed and allow locusts to lay eggs in arid land. While prolonged droughts belong to extreme weather, this and
global warming
Absolutely inseparable.
And human destruction of the land, for example
Improper use of grassland, blind reclamation of grassland, indiscriminate deforestation of vegetation, and finally lead to insufficient land vegetation coverage and result in grassland degradation and land desertification
These have planted the seeds for the most terrible breeding desert locusts.
Desertification of the land
Although we dispatched chickens and ducks when we cleaned the Henan grasslands, the effect was remarkable. However, this method is not suitable for all regions, such as the locust plague in Kenya. We still have to improve the relevant infrastructure.
The ability to detect and control the activities of locusts at all times.
From predicting locust spawning to facing a suitable outbreak of locust disaster, comprehensive detection and comprehensive control, take urgent action to reduce the number of locusts, and avoid letting them form a clustering effect, so that they can be effectively suppressed before the locust outbreak can be effectively suppressed and effectively protected crops.
But the most important thing is still to be
Slowing global warming
Reduce the frequency of drought and other extreme weather, reduce the damage to ground vegetation, and plant more trees to keep the land moist all year round, so as to fundamentally solve the harm of locust outbreaks.
Global warming needs to be slowed