What are Desert Locusts?
Not long ago, 360 billion desert locusts from Africa have
reached Pakistan and India, and are close to China and Japan. This kind of
locust is very prolific, so it is very difficult to prevent and control. Some
people have proposed to solve it by eating.
Introduction of Desert Locust
1. Is the desert locust poisonous?
Desert locusts are poisonous. Especially for locusts after
taking off in groups, the toxin will increase. When in danger, the desert
locusts will secrete stupid acetonitrile. This is highly toxic.
After the
locusts die, they will be converted into another substance, hydrocyanic acid.
Also known as hydrogen cyanide, the clinical manifestation of acute hydrogen
cyanide poisoning is that the patient has obvious bitter almond smell in
exhaled breath. Mild poisoning mainly manifests as chest tightness,
palpitations, increased heart rate, headache, nausea, vomiting, and blurred
vision.
The main manifestations of severe poisoning are deep coma, shallow
breathing, paroxysmal convulsions, and even tonic spasm.
2. What do the desert locusts mainly eat and grow up on?
Desert locusts have a wide range of edible diets, such as
cotton, alfalfa, various soybeans, wheat, barley, corn, flax, tobacco,
tomatoes, potatoes, melons (melon, watermelon, cucumber, etc.).
Also eat camel thorns and other labiatae in wild plants, as
well as wild and cultivated woody plants such as grapes, barberry, apricots,
cherries, almonds, mulberries, citrus, dates, figs, pomegranates, Papaya and
other trees.
2. Can people eat desert locusts?
Artificially-raised desert locusts can be eaten, but not
directly. Generally, the locusts just after hatching are free of toxins and can
be eaten, but if they are taken off after swarms, the toxins will increase and
are not suitable for consumption.
Because the desert locust carries a virus, when it is in
danger, the desert locust secretes stupid acetonitrile. This is highly toxic.
After the locust is dead, it will be converted into another substance,
hydrocyanic acid, also known as hydrogen cyanide.
The clinical manifestation of hydrogen cyanide poisoning is
that the patient has obvious bitter almond smell in exhaled breath.
Mild
poisoning mainly manifests as chest tightness, palpitations, increased heart
rate, headache, nausea, vomiting, and blurred vision.
The main manifestations of severe poisoning are deep coma,
shallow breathing, paroxysmal convulsions, and even tonic spasm. It was used as
a gas bomb in World War II.
The desert locust itself is a blind medicine. It can be used
in medicine. The usage of locusts at different maturity stages are different,
and the processing methods are also different. Scorpion centipedes are more
poisonous and can be used as medicine. Just use the appropriate method.
3. Can the desert locust enter Asia?
Desert locusts may enter countries like India and China. The
person in charge of the Plantation Management Department of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on the 16th that considering the barriers of
the Kunlun Mountains and the Himalayas in the Chinese border area, it is
difficult for locusts to cross high-altitude cold regions.
"As far as the current locust plagues in China’s
neighboring countries Pakistan and India are concerned, the newly hatched weak
insects are temporarily beyond the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
Even if they become adults after a period of time, they may
fly to Tibet, but Tibet’s high altitude does not yet Too much impact on Chinese
agriculture. "Zhang Zehua said.
Zhang Zehua said that according to the previous migration
routes, the locust swarms that began in Africa this year will still arrive in
Pakistan and India in May and June.
After confluence with the local locusts, they will further
spread throughout India, Bangladesh and, At that time coincided with the
monsoon season in China, locusts may enter Yunnan with the monsoon.
"Previously, the prevention and control of locust
disasters only focused on the north and west gates of China. Now we need to add
the south gate."
Zhang Zehua said that the raging and moving routes of the
desert locusts reminded China that it needs to strengthen the monitoring of
locust disasters in the southwest border area.
It was found in time to strengthen research on the prevention
and control methods of the desert locust, a species of locust that has not
become a disaster in China, to eliminate the locust disaster in the bud, and to
strengthen international cooperation.
At present, Chinese officials have paid close attention to
the locust plagues that have ravaged the world. They proposed that they will
closely track the dynamics of locust disasters abroad, and arrange for plant
protection professionals to strengthen the monitoring of locusts in border
areas. They will strictly prevent the migration of overseas desert locusts into
hazards, and do a good job in preventing locusts inside and outside China
Prepare for control.
According to the analysis of monitoring and dispatching by
the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs of China, the probability of
desert locusts harming China is very small, and the risk of large-scale
outbreaks of locusts is low.
In short, the desert locusts cannot eat and may enter Asia,
so Asian countries should also start to take preventive measures in advance.
Desert locusts are making a comeback, and there are several reasons why Asian Countries cannot be harmed
Do you remember? During the last locust plague in Pakistan,
China sent a team of experts to support the eradication. At the same time, it
was also reported online that in order to prevent locusts from attacking China,
a 100,000 duck army was also sent to the border to stand by.
Fortunately, China is safe
But the locusts did not give up. They calmed down and then
made a comeback. It is said that the number may increase by 20 times.
According to Chinese media report, Shi Wangpeng, a professor
at the College of Plant Protection of China Agricultural University, said that
from the information released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, this locust plague is the continuation of the last locust
plague in March.
Small locusts have
been unearthed, and a group of remaining locusts are still migrating in large
quantities.
Particularly severe is that the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations issued a warning that if the prevention and
control measures are not effective, the number of locusts may increase by a
factor of 20 as the rainy season approaches.
In other words, it will be more difficult by then.
In Pakistan, someone knocked on a basin to drive out locusts
Locusts are very destructive. It is said that in Pakistan
last time, swarms of locusts were flying over the field, and the potato
seedlings planted in the field were eaten incompletely, and almost no complete
leaves were found. Agricultural crops such as wheat have been severely damaged
and have suffered great losses.
Fortunately, however, did not come to China. If the number is
increased to 20 times this time, will it come? In this regard, some experts
gave the answer.
Shi Wangpeng said that the chance of coming is very small
The reason! First of all, there is no record of the outbreak
of desert locusts in China.
Secondly, it is difficult for desert locusts to cross the
high mountain barrier between China and South Asia, Southeast Asia, and West
Asia, so they should not migrate on a large scale.
It is difficult to
find desert climate conditions suitable for survival.
Based on these factors, expert Shi Wangpeng said that the
probability of desert locusts invading our country is very small.
What Research is going on about Desert Locusts?
Chinese scientists use remote sensing technology to study the
flight path of desert locust.
Recently, the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO) issued an early warning to the world, hoping that all
countries will be highly alert to the locust plague that is raging, and adopt
multi-national joint prevention and control measures to prevent serious food
crises from invading countries.
Since the second half of 2018, desert locusts have gradually
swept across the Horn of Africa and countries in Southwest Asia, severely
endangering agricultural production and food security in Pakistan, Ethiopia,
Somalia and other countries.
Recently, the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations (FAO) issued an early warning to the world, hoping that all
countries will be highly alert to the locust plague that is raging, and adopt
multi-national joint prevention and control measures to prevent serious food
crises from invading the country.
Where did the desert locust come from? Where did they fly?
Researcher Huang Wenjiang and Associate Researcher Dong
Yingying of the Institute of Aerospace Information Innovation, Chinese Academy
of Sciences have been engaged in locust remote sensing monitoring and
prediction research for many years.
Recently, the team used low- and medium-resolution satellite
imagery as the main remote sensing data source, combined with ground survey
data such as locust invasion and reproduction released by FAO, land use / cover
data, temperature and monsoon, etc., to the raging Horn of Africa and Southwest
Asia.
The research on the spatial and temporal distribution of
desert locust reproduction and migration in various countries and the
prediction path of desert locust migration and invasion in China and Pakistan
border:
In 2018, heavy rainfall in the southern Arabian Peninsula
provided favorable habitat conditions for the breeding and reproduction of
desert locusts.
From the picture above, it can be seen that in 2019, locust
swarms in Yemen and Oman began to invade eastern Saudi Arabia and southern
Iran, and then entered southwestern Pakistan from Iran.
At the same time, the
desert locusts on the India-Pakistan border continue to hatch and colonize.
From January 2020 to the present, the locust colonies on the
border between India and Pakistan have begun to multiply for three generations.
Due to the influence of the northeast monsoon, the locust colonies will migrate
to Iran and Oman and other countries.
The probability of entering the country
is small. But in summer, regarding the desert locusts in Pakistan and India there is
still no effective control.
The southwest Indian Ocean monsoon is
exceptionally strong. There is a risk that it will enter our country and
threaten our food security. Therefore, China needs to strengthen field pest
monitoring and carry out early scientific control.
Integration of multiple technologies to support locust
monitoring and early warning
Food security has always been a hot topic of concern to the
international community. In the context of global climate change, the scope and
prevalence of insect pests have clearly expanded and strengthened.
The locust
is one of the major migratory pests in the world. For our country, the East
Asian migratory locust has always been an important factor restricting China's
food security, ecological security, farmers' income increase and social
stability.
There are two types of locusts in East Asia this year that need to
be focused on
In recent years, changes in the area and distribution of locust
areas have led to an increase in the frequency of locusts, and new areas due to
new reservoirs, water conservation areas, extensive farming, and mining areas
Increase the locust area. Desert locusts are the main cause of damage in Africa
and Southwest Asia.
The traditional method of single-point monitoring of insect
pests by hand and the meteorological data prediction method of limited sites
can only obtain information on the occurrence of pests at "points",
which is far from meeting the large-scale and timely needs for pest control on
"surfaces".
Compared with traditional insect pest field survey techniques,
remote sensing can effectively and objectively monitor and predict the
occurrence and development of insect pests on a large scale, which is of great
practical significance for efficient scientific prevention and control.
The rapid development of earth observation technology in
recent years has provided effective technical means for the wide-scale
monitoring and early warning of locusts.
Satellite remote sensing data such as
domestic high score (GF) series and environmental disaster mitigation (HJ)
series, US MODIS and Landsat TM, ESA Sentinel series, etc. Earth observation
system.
In addition, the constantly updated encrypted weather station
data and the meteorological parameter products formed by the coupling of remote
sensing and meteorological data provide a richer source of information for the
monitoring of locust habitat (the environment on which locusts live and live).
At present, the development of multi-source information
fusion algorithms helps to make full use of the complementary information in
multi-source heterogeneous data to form a spatio-temporal continuous data set
with higher resolution and accuracy.
In addition, with the continuous deepening of the research on
the biological characteristics of locusts, the understanding of their
development and diffusion process and environmental impact factors has been
continuously improved.
Description of occurrence and development of locusts
So now the occurrence and development of locusts can be
described and simulated by means of models, providing a model for locust
monitoring and early warning. Method guidance and technical support.
The research team of Huang Wenjiang and Associate Researcher
Dong Yingying of the Institute of Aerospace Science and Technology have done a
lot of work in the field of locust remote monitoring and prediction research
for many years. They established a remote sensing monitoring model for plant
diseases and insect pests based on satellite remote sensing, and realized
remote sensing monitoring and mapping for large areas of pests and diseases.
Through the integration of multi-source data of satellite and
ground such as remote sensing, meteorology and plant protection, and organic
links with the epidemic mechanism of plant diseases and insect pests, a large
area of crop plant diseases and insect pests was established Forecasting
model.
The team used medium and high-resolution satellite images as
the main remote sensing data source, combined with land use / cover data,
meteorological data, ground survey data, etc., to quantitatively extract and
analyze the key factors closely related to the occurrence and distribution of
locusts according to the occurrence and development characteristics of locusts.
Such as terrain, soil type, soil moisture, surface
temperature, vegetation type, vegetation coverage, etc., coupled with pest
biological mechanism and pest occurrence and diffusion model, carry out remote
sensing monitoring and early warning of locust occurrence and development, and
combined with ground survey data for analysis and verification.
The African desert locusts are making a comeback again. They can’t
come to your country, so it’s a good thing. What do you guys say?
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