Some time ago, a news about "400 billion desert locusts wreaking havoc in India and Pakistan" was once screened on the domestic Internet. Do you have a lot of question marks, what kind of existence is the desert locust? As the first line of defense against the introduction of the epidemic, what measures has customs taken to prevent the introduction of desert locusts? Now, let Nanjing Customs take you to a quick look.
Desert Locust Crusoe
Since February, the desert locust has begun a large-scale migration, having crossed the sea from the Horn of Africa to the India-Pakistan border and southern Iran, and the alarm for desert locust control has been sounded.
Desert locust migration map published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
The desert locust belongs to the insect class , orthoptera , the family Acrididae , and the genus Schistocerca. About 80 species of desert locusts are known, and the desert locust scistocerca gregaria (forskål, 1775), which broke out in Africa in early 2020, is the most prone and most harmful species in the desert locust genus.
The desert locust is large, with males 46 to 55 mm long and females 51 to 61 mm long. The head has a distinct pale stripe from the top of the head to the back of the head, extending to the posterior edge of the dorsal plate of the anterior thorax, and the sides of the dorsal plate of the anterior thorax have dark longitudinal stripes. The forewings have many dark brown spots, the hindwings are pale, the hindfoot segments are yellow, the medial side is yellow, the upper knee is brown, and the lower knee is yellow.
The body color of the desert locust is non-genetic polymorphism. The cluster type is pale rose color, gradually transitioning to a reddish brown, bright yellow during sexual maturity, pale gray in the scattered type, and grayish yellow or gray during sexual maturity.
The desert locust has a strong reproductive ability, and a female can lay more than 100 eggs. Its life cycle can be divided into three stages: eggs, nymphs and winged adults.
Life history of the desert locust
Desert locusts are large in size and can be divided into social and scattered types, causing harm to the social type, which often gathers and lives, and migrates and spreads during the day, forming a locust plague.
Gregarious and diaspora desert locusts
Desert locusts are migratory insects, and once they occur, the density of insect populations is unusually large, and a single swarm can cover up to 1200 square kilometers, and each square kilometer can be about 40 to 80 million locusts (each group can total about 50 to 100 billion locusts).
Desert locust population density
According to fao: "A swarm of locusts per square kilometre that can hold about 80 million adult desert locusts consumes as much food a day as 35,000 people." "The desert locusts pass by can be described as no grass, covering the sky and the sun, and it is a mess.
The desert locusts have severely damaged local food crops and forage, and food production has been reduced or even stopped in the areas they pass through. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has listed the response to the desert locust disaster in East Africa as one of its top priorities in 2020, and has continuously issued warnings that the international community should pay attention to preventing the desert locust plague from causing food crises, calling on countries around the world to act quickly and supporting governments to respond.
As we all know, since the introduction of the grassland night moth from Southeast Asia to China last year, it has expanded and spread in many provinces and cities across the country, causing huge losses to China's agriculture and forestry. Although the risk of desert locusts migrating into China is relatively low, due to the wide range of desert locusts, they may be introduced with goods and means of transport, which still needs our great attention.
Grassland moth and hazards
Talk about locusts in our country
FAO lists the species and distribution of locusts in different parts of the world.
The locusts that have caused serious harm in Chinese history are flying locusts. Flying locusts belong to the order Orthoptera, locust (or locust) family, flying locust genus locusta, there are 9 subspecies known worldwide. Among them, there are 3 subspecies distributed in China, namely the East Asian Flying Locust, the Asian Flying Locust and the Tibetan Flying Locust, represented by the East Asian Flying Locust, which is the most widely distributed and the most harmful. I didn't expect that locusts are so widely distributed, so let's take you to know several common locust species in China.
East Asian locusts
1
Cotton locust
2
Yellow-ridged locust
3
Chinese sword horn locust
4
Chinese rice locust
5
Cloud-spotted locust
6
In the long history of our country, locusts have been a very common natural disaster. Because China is affected by the East Asian monsoon climate, it is either a drought in the north and a flood in the south or a drought in the south and a flood in the north, which can be described as nine droughts in ten years. Drought can easily trigger locust plagues, as the saying goes: "If you have a long drought, there will be locusts." According to historical records, the locust plague recorded in China's history has reached more than 800 times, and the grass and trees and livestock hairs of the locusts have been left behind, and the hungry pillow road, the hungry people have caught locusts for food, or exposed to dry and accumulated...
In order to effectively control the locust plague, Mr. Ma Shijun proposed the locust control strategy and measures of "combining reform and control to eradicate locust pests": on the one hand, through chemical methods and biological control, the density of locusts was reduced; on the other hand, the locust occurrence site was transformed. Through comprehensive prevention and control, large-scale locust plagues have been basically prevented and controlled in China.
The plane sprays pesticides
In the face of this menacing desert locust epidemic, the General Administration of Customs clearly requires: strict prevention of major infectious diseases such as Ebola and Lassa fever, major diseases such as African swine fever and highly pathogenic avian influenza and the introduction of foreign harmful organisms, so as to prevent the superposition of the epidemic situation.
On 19 February, the General Administration of Customs deployed to strengthen the quarantine of desert locusts and the monitoring of the epidemic situation.
On March 6, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the General Administration of Customs and the State Forestry and Grassland Administration jointly issued the "Desert Locust and Domestic Locust Monitoring and Prevention Plan" to make overall arrangements for the prevention and control of desert locusts at home and abroad.
Control of desert locusts
Nanjing Customs is in action
Nanjing Customs attaches great importance to the prevention and control of desert locust ports, regards the prevention of the introduction of alien pests such as desert locusts and grassland night moths as the annual key work, and adopts measures such as strengthening epidemic research and early warning, improving quarantine technology, and strengthening quarantine inspection and handling at ports to prevent the occurrence of superposition of epidemics.
● Collect epidemic dynamics and strengthen epidemic early warning ●
Compile and distribute "Important Plant Epidemic Information" to timely grasp the occurrence and development of desert locusts in neighboring countries. Collect technical data on desert locusts, compile, print and distribute quarantine prevention and control propaganda wall charts and brochures, and raise the level of understanding of desert locusts.
● Expert online teaching enhance practical skills ●
At important nodes in the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, DingTalk network video method was used to carry out desert locust quarantine prevention and control knowledge training.
Zhu Hongbin, senior agronomist of Nanjing Customs Plant Inspection Laboratory, gave an in-depth and simple explanation on the taxonomic status, morphological identification characteristics, biological characteristics, port prevention and control of desert locusts. A total of more than 250 people participated in the training in the whole customs area.
● Strengthen early warning and control, do a good job in port inspection ●
Carefully sort out and analyze the situation of imported goods and means of transport from East Africa, West Asia, South Asia countries and regions, and focus on inspecting the surface, surrounding and corner parts of goods and means of transport in the process of on-site inspection and ship boarding inspection. Once a suspicious situation is discovered, timely organize appraisal, and take effective quarantine measures to eliminate it, and make every effort to prevent the desert locust from being imported from the port with means of transport or goods, so as to ensure the biosecurity of the country and the safety of agricultural and forestry production in the territory.
Conclusion
Do you know more about the Desert Locust now?
Let's work together,
Let's keep the desert locusts out of the country together!
Contributed by: Nanjing Customs