Original title: Leting County to control armyworms
Author: Zhou Deshan
Source: Reading Leting Magazine of the Leting Cultural Research Association
The title image comes from the network, is a picture, and has nothing to do with this article
Armyworm is one of the important pests of Laoting crops. Armyworm disasters have the characteristics of strong suddenness, large concealment and heavy harm. In the history of agricultural production in Laoting, it has mostly happened by chance. Every year of insect infestation, it can cause huge losses to agricultural production. When the armyworm first appears, it is often in the middle of the crop plot, the insect age is small, the harm is not obvious, it is not easy to find, and when people see the armyworm around the crop, its center has long been eaten, and the crop stem is bare, resulting in a serious yield reduction, or even a harvest.
The worm occurs in four generations a year in Laoting, with the second generation from late June to early July and the third generation of locusts in August being the most harmful. Curiously, this extremely low-incidence pest occurred annually in Laoting County for eight years from 1968 to 1975, especially the second generation of crops that occurred during the wheat harvest season. The reason is that during this period, the armyworm larvae develop to 3-4 years old, the insect body grows, the body color becomes black, and the amount of food increases dramatically. After noon, the larvae migrate in groups, crawling everywhere, making the ground black, and the density of the insect population is simply impossible to investigate. In these areas, summer stubble seedlings sown after wheat harvest, the armyworm passes, and one eats a net light. Sorghum, corn and other crops planted in wheat fields are eaten into light rods, and the light ones are only residual leaf veins, growing like fish bones. In the spring sowing of corn and sorghum, there are up to 1200 insects per plant, and crops such as millet are sometimes cut off due to the baldness of insects.
In order to prevent the occurrence of armyworm disasters, the county functional departments have purchased more than 2,000 black light lamps, which are distributed and placed in various production teams throughout the county to be installed in the fields and on the banks of the pits and ponds. At the same time, under the guidance of agricultural technicians, the production teams also planted grain grass handles and poplar tree branches at intervals in the field, took advantage of the habit of insects lurking in the grass handles at night, and used sweet and sour booby traps to catch armyworms, and strived to eliminate the hotbeds that breed armyworms. In order to ensure that agricultural production and income are increased, every year during the outbreak of armyworms, the county party committee and the county revolutionary committee have no choice but to dispatch cadres from units directly under the county level and township and town levels, with the principal leaders as the commanders, to form an insect eradication task force, mobilize the masses at the grass-roots level, go all out, and devote human, material, and financial resources to the work of controlling insects and vigorously fighting a people's war to control insects and prevent disasters. During the period of insect control tension, the organs stopped working, students suspended classes, factories stopped production, shops closed, and the supply and marketing department sent insect pesticides and tools purchased in advance to the fields to meet the needs of employees to eliminate insects. The Handicraft Association also organized technicians to repair pesticide spraying tools, in short, all for the treatment of insects.
There are many ways to control insects, such as spraying liquid, spraying powder, digging blockade ditches to block and manual hunting. Although these measures have eliminated some of the pests, a considerable number of pests have escaped through the net, continuing to endanger crop growth, and some seedlings are seriously missing and have to be replanted. Every year, some crops will reduce their yield due to the slow growth of insect pests and delay the growth period, and even affect the autumn harvest and autumn planting, resulting in a vicious circle. In the 8 years since the occurrence of insect pests, leaders at all levels of counties, townships and brigades have always observed and predicted insect information with high vigilance, and dare not take it lightly every year.
In order to explore the causes of the occurrence of insect pests that occur once in many years, the functional departments have observed, analyzed and taken timely prevention and control measures for their occurrence. The results show that the occurrence of more wheat is more serious than where there is less wheat, and where there is more planting of six-carnagee (a spring-sown barley variety imported from other places) than where there is more wheat. From this point of view, it is conceived that the occurrence of armyworms may be directly related to the cultivation of liudanjun.
From 1965, Laoting introduced a small amount of six-carton quasi-barley, and first tried to plant it in the Ma Gezhuang Brigade of Qingtuo Commune, and the performance of increasing production and income was outstanding, so it was actively introduced in various places. By 1968 it had grown to a certain scale. After 1970, the county planted more than 100,000 mu in the most years. The larger the area of the six-carton accuracy, the higher the incidence of armyworms and the heavier the loss of agricultural production. It turned out that the armyworm moth of six-carton quasi-barley was a attractant crop and the root cause of the occurrence and development of armyworms. Since then, the county Revolutionary Committee has decided not to plant six quintals anymore. Since then, there have been no more catastrophic armyworms during the wheat harvest season, and it has reverted to the occasional insect infestation that has occurred for many years.
(The author is Zhou Deshan, a retired cadre.) ）