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China sends locust extermination team to Pakistan

So next habibi hunting season in Pakistan will be of Grass hoppers instead of birds and markhors. Good for Arabs Good for us. BTW that used to be our Children Nightmare, A Grass hopper jumps and sit on you remember?

Pakistanis are not much for small creatures, I am sure 90% still have nightmares from running into chhipkuli.

Some history for those suggesting introducing natural locust predators to control their population:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Pests_Campaign

Grasshoppers are interesting in their ability to adapt and survive. When populations are low, this triggers a swarming response in grasshoppers which changes their phenotype and increases their mass. Swarming locusts, in turn, convert other grasshoppers to become locusts and this brings swarms that we see.

Pakistan has an abundance of natural predators of locusts, but as a result of some decreasing river supply, deforestation, and mismanagement/waste of water resources, arid zones are increasing.
 
Chinese duck legion prepared to help Pakistan wipe out locust plague
By Du Qiongfang and Liu Xuanzun Source:Global Times Published: 2020/2/27 13:21:22

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Photo taken with mobile phone on Feb. 15, 2020 shows Pakistani children trying to avoid locusts swarming in Okara district in eastern Pakistan's Punjab province. (Str/Xinhua)

China is preparing to send an army of 100,000 ducks to Pakistan to help the country exterminate the locust plague that has been posing a huge threat to the country's agriculture. The estimated time of deployment is the second half of this year.

Ducks are natural enemies of locusts, will not pollute the environment like pesticide and can lay eggs after having accomplished their mission, experts said.

The duck legion from Shaoxing, East China's Zhejiang Province, are veterans who wiped out the locust outbreak in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region 20 years ago, Li Guowei, head of Guowei Poultry Industry in Zhuji, Shaoxing, which provided the ducks, told the Global Times on Thursday.

Locust plagues can be controlled with pesticide or through biological methods, but the latter is preferred because it is more cost efficient, does not pollute the environment and can restore the biological chain, Lu Lizhi, a research fellow at the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, who is directly involved in the duck deployment plan, told the Global Times.

Ducks are also considered superior to frogs, birds or chickens, as they like to live in groups, have a strong ability to survive in the wild and are easy to manage, Lu said, noting that frogs and birds are less disciplined and cannot follow locusts into new areas.

"A chicken can eat 70 locusts (a day), but a duck can eat 200," Lu said, noting that "They won't even leave a locust cocoon behind."

The ducks are very productive when they grow up, so after they accomplish the locust extermination mission, they can bring about economic value by laying eggs which can make delicious food, Li said.

The duck legion can be transported by aircraft and arrive in Pakistan in a day, Ningbo Evening News reported.

Lu said they still need time to set up a technical protocol with Chinese and Pakistani experts and calculate the best time to send the ducks in order to bring about the best result.

"We hope to perfect the technology of using ducks to control locusts and then export the technology to Pakistan, helping them control the locust plague. We will not only apply the technology in dealing with locusts in our country but also promote the technologies in countries involved in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative," Lu said.

Pakistan will send personnel to China to learn the technology in Xinjiang first. The ducks from Shaoxing will be sent to Pakistan as early as later this year or early next year, Lu said.

Currently, Pakistan is still mainly using pesticides to control locusts, but hope to increase the proportion of biological methods, which are more environmentally friendly as well as economically beneficial to the country, Lu said.

A group of Chinese agricultural experts arrived in Pakistan on Monday, and will be providing technical support for locust plague control and jointly work out an action plan with the Pakistani government to prevent another possible outbreak later in April.

The plague of desert locusts, possibly a result of climate change and hurricanes, has invaded more than 20 countries from west to east in Africa, and from west to east in Asia in the past few months, spanning more than 16 million square kilometers, leading to a food crisis.

Pakistan declared a national emergency over the locust invasion earlier this month.
 
China to send 'duck army' to help Pakistan fight locusts
AP
February 27, 2020
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China deployed ducks, whose natural diet includes insects, to fight a similar infestation in its northwestern region of Xinjiang two decades ago. — Uzair Shah/Dawn
China is planning to dispatch a 100,000-strong army of ducks to help Pakistan combat a massive locust infestation, a local Chinese newspaper reported on Thursday.

The legion of lotus-eating waterfowl will be sent from the eastern province of Zhejiang following the earlier dispatch of a team of Chinese experts to Pakistan to advise on a response to the infestation that is being called the worst in 20 years, the Ningbo Evening News said.

China deployed ducks, whose natural diet includes insects, to fight a similar infestation in its northwestern region of Xinjiang two decades ago, reportedly with considerable effectiveness. Their use is both much less expensive and environmentally damaging than the use of pesticides, the paper quoted Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Agricultural Technology researcher Lu Lizhi as saying.

Ducks are also more suited to the task than other poultry, such as chickens, Lu said.

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“Ducks like to stay in a group, so they’re easier to manage than chickens,” he said. A duck is also capable of eating more than 200 locusts per day, compared to just 70 for a chicken, Lu said. “They have three-times the combat capability,” he added.

Calls to the provincial government press office seeking confirmation of the report rang unanswered on Thursday and a number provided for the publicity department at the agricultural sciences institute was constantly engaged.

Pakistan was invaded by the locust swarm last year, which proceeded to lay waste to the country's cotton crop and is now menacing the wheat harvest.
 
So 100,000 ducks can eat 100,000 * 200 = 20 million locusts per day.

Time to send in the ducks to hunt locusts. :sniper:
 
But how many locusts are there in these invading swarms?


Depends on the size of the swarm.

Quick Google search says 80 million in a "typical" swarm and so 4 days to clear one swarm before the ducks can be sent to tackle another swarm.
 
I hope our stupid people don't start hunting them.

Can ducks survive in dry regions in summer because weather in sindh is harsh during summers?
 
Chinese expert think similar way like me to bring Locust predator to infected region in Pakistan. :-)

It is a better action than using chemical that can poison the soil and plant.

@Beast Look like you are the stupid one on this matter to discard my idea without proper analysis :enjoy:
 

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