Xuzhou prevention and control of alien biological invasion "war" is escalating Please guard the national gate biosecurity

"It can withstand high temperatures of up to 40 °C, and the lowest can resist low temperatures of -16 °C, and it is resistant to hunger, and it can survive without taking food for 15 days." The amount of reproduction is large, the amount of food is large, and more than 300 kinds of plants are its plate meals. This is the characteristic of invasive alien pests ——— the American white moth. On September 13, in a seedling cultivation garden in Xuzhou City, Yu Yanhua, chief of the Forest Protection Section of Xuzhou Forest Technology Center, cut a branch full of American white moth mesh curtains on a peach tree and pointed to the dense larvae in the net screen.

What are the invasive alien pests in Xuzhou? What kind of harm is caused? How to deal with them? Recently, the Forest Technology Center of Xuzhou Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning and the Customs Verification Department jointly carried out quarantine work and taught business owners prevention and control methods.

◆ The American white moth has three generations a year, and the harm is huge

"The peach trees, persimmon trees, walnuts and other fruit trees I planted have all the leaves eaten!" On the morning of September 13, in a seedling cultivation garden in Gulou District, the owner confided in the inspection staff. This cultivation garden has planted more than 10 kinds of fruit trees and crops, and there are poplar trees, french trees, purple leaf plums, white ash and other tree species on the periphery, and some whole plants are eaten bare, who is doing the wrong thing?

Inspectors found hundreds of "caterpillars" densely packed on the branches of a peach tree, almost all of which were eaten away, and the insects were surrounded by a white mesh curtain, like an open-air tent. "It's the American White Moth!" It is already the 4th instar larval stage, and it must be eliminated quickly! Yu Yanhua recognized these "troublemakers" at a glance. Then, she picked up the pruning shears and "clicked" to cut off the mutilated peach branches.

"Cut it first, spray it centrally or incinerate, and then spray the trees with low-toxicity, pollution-free pesticides to achieve complete elimination." Yu Yanhua instructed the gardener on how to deal with the American white moth.

In Xuzhou, the American white moth has three generations a year, with a long duration and a long period of harm. The larvae live in the net curtain and are the best time to control it.

How fertile and feeding is the American white moth? It is understood that the eggs laid by a female moth in the spring can theoretically breed 200 million American white moths in a year, which can eat all the leaves of 100 acres of forests, harming more than 300 kinds of plants such as trees, fruit trees, crops, flowers, and vegetables. When the harm is severe, the trees everywhere they go are as if they have been burned by fire, so they are called "smokeless fires", causing serious economic losses and ecological damage. When the population is large, the larvae crawl into the homes of residents in groups, which seriously affects people's normal lives.

◆ The "war" to kill moths lasted for 10 years and was constantly escalating

American white moth entered Xuzhou in 2011, with natural transmission and human transmission, gradually spread and spread, becoming a major forest pest in the city's forest, due to its own too tenacious, coupled with the uncertainty and uncontrollability of the spread, as well as the impact of climatic factors, two or three years after being suppressed, it is often rebounding, so it is difficult to completely eliminate. The forestry department of Xuzhou City has been killing moths for 10 consecutive years, becoming a difficult and protracted battle without gun smoke.

The equipment and level of "war" are also constantly upgrading, from the ground to the air, from the original manual capture to the spraying of pesticides by modern aircraft, to high-tech biological control, people are trying to find ways to fight with the United States white moth.

"There are planes spraying pesticides at high altitudes in the sky, high-lift spraying, smoke-borne drugs, and cutting net curtains, tying grass handles, catching adult insects, releasing biological predators and other measures at the same time." Yu Yanhua said that the financial departments at all levels in Xuzhou City invest funds every year to support the prevention and control of the American white moth, the municipal finance invests more than 2 million yuan per year, and the municipal forestry department uniformly controls the aircraft prevention and control of the 50-meter range on both sides of the green channels such as highways, national highways, and provincial highways in the municipal jurisdiction, the 200-meter range of the Yellow River Old Road, and the American white moth and Yang Xiaozhou moth in the scenic areas such as Tongshan Lvliang Scenic Area and Jiawangpan'an Lake Wetland Park, and has achieved good results.

Releasing biological predators is a pollution-free, high-tech control method. Since 2015, Xuzhou has begun to establish a biological control demonstration area to release the Natural Enemy of the American White Moth, Zhou's Little Wasp. The wasps track and parasitize the American white moth pupae, killing them. What is more valuable is that it has zero pollution to the environment, and has special killing and tracking, which is also incomparable to other methods.

◆ These invasive alien species should also be vigilant

In addition to the large number of breeding American white moths, what other invasive alien organisms are there in Xuzhou?

The Xuzhou people's concept of "alien invasion" first came from canada's "a yellow flower". "A yellow flower blooms, a hundred plants die." As early as 2004, Jiangsu began to comprehensively eliminate the "yellow flower", which had spread more than 12,000 acres at that time, and suspected plants were found in Xuzhou. In 2005, Xuzhou found a total of 18 yellow flowers in Canada, with an area of 260,000 square meters, and the Xuzhou Plant Protection and Plant Inspection Station officially issued a "wanted order".

The Brazilian tortoise is a common alien creature of the public, and it is listed by the IUCN as one of the 100 most dangerous invasive species in the world because it is very reproductive and predatory, and it cannot coexist with other organisms in water. However, many Xuzhou people breed it as a pet. Some of the releasers did not know the truth and also released Brazilian turtles.

The reporter learned in the interview that in order to meet the needs of caring people and standardize guidance, and in order to prevent alien organisms from infringing on the entire Yunlong Lake system, the Cloud Management Committee has built a "release pool" of nearly 10,000 square meters on the south side of Xiaonanhu Lake. The release pond has only one inlet, which is separated from the water body of Yunlong Lake by metal grates and is relatively independent. The relevant person in charge of the Cloud Management Committee said, "The total amount of fish and other organisms in Yunlong Lake needs to be balanced, and if unknown alien organisms enter Yunlong Lake, it is likely to cause catastrophic destruction to the organisms in the lake." ”

"The way to deal with a yellow flower is to uproot it. In recent years it has been out of our monitoring range. Wu Shen, the fourth-level host of the Xuzhou Customs Verification Section, said that for brazilian turtles, because there are no relevant regulations prohibiting citizens from buying, selling and breeding, they can only be exhorted through publicity, but the customs is prohibited from carrying. Since the beginning of this year, red fire ants from South America have frequently rushed to the hot search, and have now spread to 12 provinces in China, and the emergence of red fire ants in Xuzhou has not yet been monitored.

There are also some common invasive alien organisms, such as crayfish, locusts, bullfrogs, which have become the food of the Chinese people, and xuzhou foodies have also made outstanding "contributions" to their elimination.

◆ Guarding the biosecurity of the country is everyone's responsibility

Species invasion is a terrible thing, and if left unchecked, it can cause some harm to local ecosystems. According to the 2019 China Ecological Environment Announcement released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China in 2019, more than 600 exotic species have been found in China, and many of them have caused a certain degree of damage to the local ecological environment.

How did these alien creatures invade? Wu Shen said that the invasion of alien organisms is mainly divided into natural introduction, artificial introduction and unintentional introduction with human activities. "For example, if we go to a strange suburb to check, if a bug hides in a tire, it may accidentally bring it into another ecological circle, which is a species invasion caused by unintentional introduction."

According to the current data and data, the main biological species naturally introduced into China are: purple-stemmed Zelan, which naturally spread into China in the 1940s from the border between China and Myanmar and China-Vietnam; typical cases of artificial introduction are Australian rabbits and Asian carp; alien organisms unintentionally introduced with human activities include red fire ants, Fuso cotton powdery beetles; and Fushou snails, broad bean elephants, poisonous wheat, American white moths, etc. that bring greater harm.

The prevention and control of invasive alien pests is the key to protecting China's biosecurity.

"Every year, we will carry out national biosecurity publicity and jointly carry out inspections with relevant departments to enhance the public's awareness of biosecurity." Wu Shen said that some players buy succulents directly from overseas websites, which is also not allowed. Because succulents are plant materials with reproductive ability, they are prohibited from entering the country. And once it contains stone garlic powdery beetle, it will bring major losses to agricultural production and ecological environment after being introduced to China. It is recommended that you do not buy animal and plant products such as pets, flowers and plants from the Internet. "It is everyone's responsibility to guard the biosecurity of the country, and I hope that each of us can realize the harm of species invasion and take action to protect the homeland." Wu Shen said.

Xu Bao Rong Media Reporter Wu Yun Wang Chunyuan Trainee Reporter Lu Hongxia Zhou Jie