China urgently mobilizes nearly 3 million chickens to destroy insects that cause damage of 100 billion VND each year.

An invasive species with a scale of more than 200 individuals/m2 ^, causing damage of 100 billion VND each year. This has caused China to urgently mobilize nearly 3 million chickens. What kind of animal is it?

This terrifying invasive species is the locust (scientific name Caelifera ). This is an insect that is harmful to agricultural production . Wherever they move, the plants there are greatly damaged.

According to experts, locusts can eat more than 3 times their body weight in a day. Although locusts mainly eat grass, corn leaves, rice., they are picky eaters. They especially like to eat the freshest middle part of the stem and leaves, so they are very harmful to food crops.

In particular, once there is a good breeding environment, locusts are very easy to combine with each other and turn into a disaster. Therefore, since ancient times, people have tried to find ways to deal with the invasion of this animal.

Locusts are insects that cause damage to agricultural production.

In fact, 22 years ago, China adopted a special "biological" method to kill locusts on a large scale. This method not only does not cause damage to the environment but can also help farmers increase their income.

Specifically, since 2001, people in China have used chickens to kill locusts.

At that time, there was a locust plague in the grasslands of Hebei (China). According to local people, the locust density per square meter at that time was up to more than 200 locusts.

Many crops and plants have been damaged by locusts. The economic loss caused by the locust plague has exceeded 30 million yuan (over 100 billion VND). To prevent this damage, people in Phong Ninh district, Hebei province, have prepared to take some chemical and biological preventive measures.

Accordingly, the chemical method is to spray pesticides. However, because the chemicals from this type of pesticide cause great damage to the ecological environment, it is gradually being used less and less. The biological method is to use chickens and ducks to destroy the locust swarms.

Finally, the local people here chose chickens to kill locusts. Chickens are considered natural enemies of locusts. Therefore, similar to raising horses and sheep, raising chickens has become a major project for local farmers to kill locusts and increase their income.

Moreover, gradually, people realized that raising chickens not only helps kill locusts but also makes the chicken meat firmer and tastier. Thanks to that, this type of chicken also sells for a higher price than normally raised chicken.

What difficulties do chicken farming to kill locusts face?

Local farmers have to solve three problems when raising chickens to kill locusts.

Experts say that when raising chickens to kill locusts, local farmers face three main problems.

• First, are all types of chickens suitable for grazing to kill locusts?
• Second, when is the best time to raise chickens to kill locusts?
• Third, how do chickens follow human instructions to eat locusts and then return?

Faced with these three problems, local people in Hebei have come up with the optimal solution.

• First , they chose a breed of chicken with big feet, strong steps and fast running speed.
• Second, people will raise chickens to kill locusts depending on the stage of development of this animal. According to research by scientists, locusts at the age of 2 and 3 have a small amount of food and their wings are not fully developed. At this age, they cause less damage, so this is the best control stage.

However, chicks cannot take on the task of chasing and eating locusts right after birth. Instead, the best age for chickens to kill locusts is when they are 90 days old.

Chicks cannot take on the task of destroying locusts on a large scale.

• Third, becoming a locust-killing chicken is not easy. Accordingly, it needs to go through a training process. Farmers will become the organizers of these special training courses. Each training session requires about 500 - 1,000 chickens.

Farmers will bring their chickens to the pasture and set up tents as " temporary dormitories ". They will tame the chickens so that they move around the tents in a regulated manner and stay within a 500 meter radius. This way, the chickens will not get lost. Farmers also use whistles to signal the chickens to gather when necessary.

To create a habit, farmers start blowing the whistle when the chickens are very young to teach them to gather. The length and frequency of the whistle command must be appropriate to avoid confusing the chickens.

China mobilizes nearly 3 million chickens to kill locusts

China once mobilized nearly 3 million chickens to kill locusts.

According to experts, an adult chicken can eat more than 70 locusts in a day. Therefore, if a large flock of chickens is gathered to do this task, the locust problem will be solved very quickly.

By 2012, the Ministry of Agriculture in China had mobilized 10 regions, including Hebei, Inner Mongolia, Gansu. to raise chickens to control the locust plague. Accordingly, 12,500 farmers and breeders mobilized nearly 3 million chickens to control more than 14 million acres of grassland.

Thanks to these chickens, economic losses to grasslands were reduced by 127 million yuan (about 424 billion VND) and the average income of each household increased by nearly 6,500 yuan (more than 21 million VND). Using chickens to deal with the locust epidemic is indeed an optimal solution that brings many benefits in China.