Tam Son (Anh Son): Efforts to eradicate locusts that are damaging crops

(Baonghean.vn) - At 5:00 a.m. on May 23, 135 students of Tam Son Primary and Secondary School (Anh Son) and officials and people in the commune took action to destroy locusts that were seriously damaging spring crops.

Mr. Nguyen Van Luan in hamlet 2 of Tam Son commune recounted: “My family was preparing to harvest more than 1 sao of elephant grass, but in just a few days, swarms of locusts flew back and destroyed all the elephant grass. In addition, 1 hectare of land planted in the forest was also completely eaten by locusts. Locusts are growing faster and faster and not only attacking crops, but now swarms are moving into people's houses, so we have to close the house all day and use homemade nets to catch and destroy the locusts.”

The locust plague appeared in Tam Son commune nearly a week ago, initially only small swarms, but in recent days it has appeared with high density and concentrated mostly in hamlets 1, 2 and 4. Mr. Nguyen Van Hung - Chairman of Tam Son Commune People's Committee said: "Previously, locusts often appeared in the forest and often ate all the leaves of this tree, but this year, for the first time, locusts have flooded in and destroyed crops at a very serious level and the only way to destroy locusts is to use a net to catch them and with this manual method, the damage caused by locusts has been gradually limited".

Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan in hamlet 1 uses a net to catch grasshoppers in the tea garden.

Faced with the increasingly complicated spread of locusts in Tam Son commune, officials from the Plant Protection Station of Anh Son district went to the commune to instruct people on how to make nets to catch and kill locusts. Mr. Nguyen Duc Vinh - Member of the Commune's Judicial Committee said: "My family has just harvested 9 sao of rice and is very happy because this year's yield is high, but after only a few days, the remaining 9 sao of rice has not yet had time to grow before the flowers were bitten off by locusts, causing a loss in yield."

Corn plants are stripped of pollen by grasshoppers.

Wherever the locusts fly, crops and trees are stripped of their leaves. Tens of hectares of forest in Tam Son are bare, then the rice fields lose their flowers because they cannot catch them in time, the corn plants are bare of pollen... People are extremely worried about the destruction caused by locusts and this will greatly affect the productivity of crops and livestock. Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan is worried: "The locusts have destroyed all the elephant grass, so in the coming time, we will have to buy grass for livestock farming. Thus, the cost of livestock farming will increase again."

According to the officer in charge of plant protection in Tam Son commune, “People in the commune have actively participated in destroying locusts, but in the process of implementation, they encountered many difficulties due to lack of equipment and could only catch locusts in corn and rice fields, but it was very difficult to catch locusts in the meter trees because the locusts cling to the high ground, so currently the meter forest is the most severely damaged. Tam Son commune really hopes for support and cooperation to thoroughly handle the situation of locusts destroying people's crops.

Locusts gather in large numbers to destroy crops.

It is known that more than 10 days ago, Thanh Son commune also had a locust epidemic and the local authorities and people actively used nets and nets to destroy the locusts very promptly and effectively. Therefore, currently, the only way in Tam Son is for people to actively participate in the work of destroying locusts by manual methods. Up to now, Tam Son commune has not yet been able to calculate the damage caused by the locust epidemic, but it is clear that with the reality that has happened and is happening in Tam Son, the locust epidemic will leave serious consequences, greatly affecting the lives of the people.

Hoang Vinh