Biologists told about the peculiarities of the fight against the invasion of locusts

It is most effective to deal with locusts while they are at the larval stage. This was announced to Izvestia on June 26 by Ksenia Lebedeva-Georgievskaya, curator of the Biology and Chemistry department at the Evening Natural Science School.

"The formation of flying individuals is a process largely based on biofeedback. The more adults there are, even sedentary individuals, the more likely they are to become gregarious and their numbers will snowball. Therefore, it is more effective to deal with larvae," Lebedeva-Georgievskaya said.

According to her, the fight against adult insecticides can be ineffective due to their migrations, which leads to the need to re-cultivate fields. She also noted that adult locusts can adapt evolutionarily quickly to new poisons due to intensive population growth.

Lebedeva-Georgievskaya noted that with uncontrolled reproduction, locusts are a serious threat to crops. At the same time, a flock of adult individuals does not pose a danger to humans, although damaged bodies can jam into the mechanisms of cars and disable agricultural machinery.

Vladimir Pinaev, a member of the Public Council of the Basic Organization of the CIS Member States for Environmental Education, added that insecticidal treatment or labor-intensive mechanical destruction should be applied if locusts are found near rural settlements. At the same time, alternative means like "light guns" with ultraviolet emitters, according to him, have not yet proven their effectiveness.

Petty tormentors: how a snowy winter spoils summer for summer residents and farmers

Abnormal pest activity and waterlogging of the soil can affect the harvest, experts believe.

Sofia Zhelezova, a leading researcher at the All-Russian Plant Quarantine Center, Doctor of Agricultural Sciences, announced on June 1 that Russia may begin using a laser beam to combat the spread of hogweed. At the same time, she stressed that such innovative methods are still significantly inferior in effectiveness to traditional methods: mechanical, chemical and agrotechnical.