In the Kudur Forest District of Daxing'anling in Inner Mongolia in May, the grass and trees are green and everything is revived, so that people can't help but feel the breath of nature and explore the secrets of spring. However, in the eyes of the technicians of the Forest Defense Station of the Kudur Forestry Bureau, they are not concerned with the beautiful scenery, but with forest diseases and insect pests.
How to "fight wits and courage" with insect pests and "strengthen the body" of the forest? With doubts, recently, the author followed the "forest doctor" to "go to the clinic".
Our first stop was at a pine gall moth monitoring site in the wild. I saw some larch quilts in a white mesh cover at the scene and couldn't help but be curious. "This is called 'cage', which we designed ourselves to capture and monitor the small roll moth of pine gall, which is equivalent to 'wild breeding'. The operation is also very simple, the young trees that have been invaded by insects are covered, and the upper and lower ends are tied tightly with ropes, and the middle is breathable and transparent, which does not affect the growth of trees and the evolution of insects. Technician Song Xiaoyong explained.
According to Song Xiaoyong, they are carrying out the central financial forestry science and technology promotion demonstration project - research on the comprehensive control technology of the pine gall moth, and have summarized a set of effective integrated control technologies by understanding and mastering the biological characteristics of the pine gall moth. Due to the small size of the loose gall moth, it is not easy to trap, and the survival rate of indoor rearing is low, so it is tailored to the "cage", and the technician needs to conduct irregular inspections to prevent loosening and damage. It is the time when the pine gall moth has evolved from a larva to a pupa, and its hiding place is very hidden, but it is also difficult to escape the eyes of the "forest doctor". In a little more than a month, the adult worm will emerge from the trunk, and as everyone knows, what awaits it is a "cage" that cannot fly out.
"Don't look at it as small as it grows, it is particularly harmful, and once the young larch trees have been invaded, they have lost the opportunity to grow into timber." Song Xiaoyong's words were tinged with regret. Li Shuangxi, a colleague on the other side, sighed: "The growth experience of a tree is too bumpy, and it is necessary to be forbidden to be 'tested' by various insect pests."
We then rushed to the next monitoring point for larch caterpillars. In this year's list of key pest control, pine caterpillars "ranked first". In the distance, an artificial larch forest shades the sky, and clusters of tender pine needles stretch out on the branches, emitting a burst of rosin, which is the favorite food of pine caterpillars. Looking closer, there was a dark gray pine caterpillar on the trunk of the tree, trying to climb up hard, eager to "eat a full meal" on the branches, but unfortunately, it was intercepted in the middle of the road by the "barricade" set up by the control officer. The technical term for this "roadblock" is called "barrier investigation method", and a plastic ring is wrapped around the chest diameter of the trunk to block the larvae from the tree, which is convenient for monitoring the number of pine caterpillar larvae on the tree and the rate of insect plants.
After carefully inspecting the various marked trees, Song Xiaoyong said: "According to our monitoring and investigation in recent times, the pine caterpillars in this forest are more serious, and all the branches it has eaten, the pine needles 'pieces of armor are not left'. Prevention and control measures must be taken in late June, otherwise the consequences will be unimaginable if the pest breaks out and spreads. In order to ensure that the "right medicine" is "prescribed", the forest defense station technicians must have a deep understanding of the biological characteristics of each forest disease and insect pest, and make specimens of insect states at various stages through trapping or breeding in the wild, which takes a year or even many years. At present, the technician Sun Yingfang has successfully produced a complete life history of larch caterpillars, from the original fear of insects to catch insects with bare hands, and then to the companion of insects, the so-called know oneself and know the other, in order to win every battle.
Although the forest stages a "human-insect war" every year, elimination is not the ultimate goal. "If the insect infestation is completely eliminated, the biological chain will be destroyed, and it is guaranteed that there are insects that do not become a disaster." Respecting the laws of nature and maintaining ecological balance are the premise and foundation for the prevention and control of forest diseases and insect pests. Xue Qi, deputy director of the forest defense station, said.
In the 502,000-hectare ecological function area of the Kudur Forestry Bureau, there are 1.18 million mu of plantation forests that have grown for 67 years, and it is not easy to grow into timber and it is even more difficult to become a forest. It is precisely by relying on a pair of diligent feet that the "forest doctors" have walked all corners of the ecological functional area and relied on a pair of diligent hands to prevent and control more than 20 kinds of forest diseases and insect pests such as pine gall moths, pine caterpillars, and rat pests, and have won a "forest defense war without gun smoke" by relying on the experience and wisdom accumulated over the years.
Nowadays, the green mountains are unharmed, the greenery is green, and the technical personnel of the Forest Defense Station of the Kudur Forestry Bureau are indispensable, and the "woodpecker spirit" of "eliminating harm, dedication, virtue and truth-seeking" blooms everywhere in the Xing'an Forest Sea, and the inheritance is endless...