Taojiang: Drones vs. Bamboo Locust

“The drone operation area can reach more than 200 mu a day, which is five times the efficiency of manual operation on the ground.” On July 15, Hu Shiming, the first village secretary in Nanshan Village, Majitang, Taojiang County, was organizing villagers to use plant protection drones to spray powder to kill bamboo locusts in the bamboo forest.

Hu Shiming introduced that bamboo locusts are the nemesis of bamboo, and their activity peaks every summer. Bamboo locusts feed on plant leaves such as bamboo leaves. When bamboo locusts occur on a large scale, the new bamboo will wither and die if damaged; After the old bamboo is damaged, there will be no new shoots within 2 to 3 years, and the damaged bamboo poles will accumulate water and lose their utilization value.

“Some locusts are distributed in the bamboo forests without forest roads, and there is no way to spray medicine from the ground, so the effect of plant protection drones is better.” Hu Shiming introduced that the village organized seven villagers to devote themselves to pest prevention, and continued to carry out locust prevention and control through various methods such as spray of plant protection drones, food trapping and killing.

Wu Xionghui, a senior forestry engineer in Fuqiushan, Taojiang County, explained that the spawning ground of bamboo locusts is hidden and difficult to find, and adult locusts can fly and migrate, and they are clustered. If it spreads and migrates from bamboo forests to corn and rice fields, it will cause serious harm to crops. At present, Taojiang County has organized 139 professional locust control teams, used plant protection drones to control locusts, and urgently transported 5 tons of special powder for bamboo locusts, 7 powder sprayers, and 800 pieces of pest killing pairs for control, to ensure that the bamboo locusts are extinguished at the best time.