A plague of rare forest beetles is believed to have damaged 1,000
hectares of fruit trees in Longquan District, a fruit-growing area
in Southwest China's
Sichuan
Province.
The local plant protection research centre, under the Sichuan
Academy of Agricultural Sciences, is taking emergency measures to
control the pest's further spread in the province but no effective
way has yet been found to kill the pest.
Yao Ge, a botanical expert with the academy, said: "We do not fully
understand the pest, and an entirely satisfactory solution has not
yet been found.''
He
said the method used so far to get rid of the pest was to cut down
and thoroughly burn all the affected trees.
It
has already been established that the pest belongs to the
Scolytidae family of beetles and is highly harmful to several kinds
of fruit, including grapes, oranges and pears. The pest's larva and
imago (the final and fully developed stage of an insect) bore into
tree branches and trunks and eat them until the tree is hollow.
Chen Xiaomi, whose family has been the worst affected in Longquan
District, said not even one grape tree survived the pest in her 4
mu (0.267 hectare) plot of land.
Chen Jiacai, Chen Xiaomi's father, said his family found the pest
when picking the grapes last year but neither his family nor the
village paid any particular attention to the problem. Now other
fruit growers in the district have discovered the same pest.
It
remains to be confirmed whether the beetle is an alien or
indigenous species but the epidemic is certainly quite serious.
Liu Xun, another researcher with Yao's academy, said: "Many of the
affected trees will provide some harvest this year but they will
face a fatal blow next year as there are no efficient preventive
measures or treatment and it's hard to imagine what would happen if
the epidemic spread to other areas.''
A
study on the pest was prepared by the scientists Liu, Yao, Shi
Wancheng and Xia Xianquan.
Yao said the pear gall midge, a kind of dangerous insect that has
never been seen in the province before, has also been discovered in
Sichuan. It has harmed nearly 200,000 mu (13,300 hectares) of pear
trees.
Experts said they hoped the relevant authorities could establish as
soon as possible an emergency system to improve the responses to
outbreaks of dangerous pests.
(China Daily July 5, 2003)