Spraying 6,000 acres of locusts can kill more than 50,000 acres of locusts daily.

In the autumn of 1959, severe locust plagues occurred in Wuzhi, Yuanyang, Zhongmu and other counties along the Yellow River in Henan Province. Henan Civil Aviation Bureau dispatched 10 aircrafts. Presented two wave-2 planes in Anyang) , mobilized the masses to kill 9.67 million person-times of locusts, and the area of ​​locusts was 6.25 million mu.

In June 1961, locust disasters occurred in 62 counties (cities) in Kaifeng, Xinyang, Nanyang, and other special districts. Due to the large number of equipment shipped by the five planes, the Henan Provincial Bureau of Civil Aviation killed more than 6.6 million acres of locusts by sending only 25 aircraft. Nearly ten million people.

In 1960, the Henan Provincial Bureau of Civil Aviation set up a professional flight team with 6 five-flight aircraft and 28 flight crews. The first task of the flight team was to prevent and control pests and diseases.

In 1962, the Henan Provincial Professional Flight Team was expanded to the 28th Chinese Civil Aviation Flight Brigade. The team had 18 planes and 55 flight crews. According to the locust killing data of the Henan Provincial Bureau, the locust plague completely disappeared after 1964. Soviet experts mentioned that “continuous use of aircraft to control locusts can control locust plagues in five years.” This conclusion has also been thoroughly fulfilled in Henan.

Before the use of aircraft to control locusts, Henan Province mobilized 9.82 million and 6.69 million people to hunt locusts in 1951 and 1952, respectively, because locust plagues usually occur during busy farming seasons.It even affected food production. The famous entomologist Qiu Shibang recalled: “The biggest problem we face is that the country ’s labor force spent on locust control every year is incredible. In 1951 alone, the labor day spent on locust control in the country was One hundred and ninety-nine, the control of locusts has affected wheat harvest, summer crops … “

The mass production of Yunwu has popularized the eradication of locusts by planes, expanding the effect and saving a lot of manpower. It can be said that the situation of locust control has been fundamentally reversed. When the production of Yunwu aircraft was 100, the locust disaster was already possible in China Effective control, the locust plague basically disappeared when the output reached 200. After the Fifth Plane was put into production, the Wave-2 aircraft gradually turned into a sports aircraft.

Plane killing locusts is completely effective

The early eradication of locusts in New China mainly used the “six-six-six” insecticide, which was a highly effective insecticide successfully developed by Brunner Mond & Co in 1945. The North China Institute of Agricultural Sciences in China in 1949 In August, the trial production of “Six Six Sixth” was successful. In 1950, the North China Agricultural Medicine Factory began large-scale processing of powders.

The killing effect of “six or six six” powder on locusts is more than 90%.

For example, from August 4 to 9, 1951, the North China Air Force sprayed 24,400 acres of “six-six-six” powder in Anci, and the locust mortality reached 50% to 60% within 1 to 2 hours after spraying. 2 The locust mortality rate reached 90% within ~ 4 hours. From May 26 to 27, 1956, Jiangsu Province used aircraft to dust 22,800 mu, and the locust killing rate in dusting locust area reached 100% within 12 hours. In the early summer of 1963, the migratory locusts on the Yellow River beach were severe. The Henan Provincial Bureau of Civil Aviation flew a total of 155 sorties with five planes, sprayed 310,000 kilograms of medicine, and controlled an area of ​​130,000 acres. The average killing effect was over 98%.

But the “six or six” pesticide is too toxic and has high residuals. After being widely used, it even appeared “silent spring”, and it was gradually replaced by other low-toxic pesticides.


No Terrain Restriction for Plane Control

The areas where locusts spawn and develop are often riverbank depressions, with deep reeds, difficult passage of people, and breeding of mosquitoes brings a lot of difficulties in hunting. For example, in 1951, the Yongding River floodplains in the two counties of Wuqing, Anci, Hebei, were immersed in cement, overgrown weeds and weeds, and the muddy water passed through the knees. . The locusts were basically eliminated within 10 days after the Bo-2 aircraft was launched.

Another example is the locust area of ​​Baodi County. The area of ​​water is sorghum, and the manual locust killing has no effect seven times. However, the Bo-2 aircraft completely eliminated locusts in the locust area 8 days after the locust killing. The train passed by Xinxingyang Village, and passengers could smell the rotten smell of locusts.

In the spring of 1959, five special counties in Sihong, Siyang, Hongze, Suqian, and Jinhu built locust-only airports to completely eliminate the locust lakeside locusts, which are sparsely populated, large, and dense. Area.

What locusts are afraid of, and most afraid of industrialization, industrialization can provide efficient pesticides, spray aircraft, and various equipment for insecticide operations.

However, relying on technology alone will not work.The successful experience of weaving is described in detail:

“The management of locusts by aircraft requires a strong leadership organization. In several work, we deeply felt the importance of the leadership group to the management of locusts by aircraft. Among them, Baodi County did the best work. Deputy Commissioner Liu Hao of the special agency leads the staff and cooperates with local cadres to organize the locust catching command in the locust area. Deputy Commissioner Liu is the director and Baodi County Chief, Air Force and Pest Control Technician are the deputy directors. It has secretaries, investigation, The five departments of signal, supply and general affairs, respectively manage information, data, signal, transportation, medical and hospitality.

The headquarters mobilized the masses and Air Force ground staff to build an airport. The Investigation Section combined the masses to organize a reconnaissance team with 30 people to understand the locust situation in the locust area. The Signal Section combined with the local youth league members to organize a signal team. Every night at 7 o’clock, a meeting will be held in the airport according to the work of each department, report the work and check the advantages and disadvantages, and then decide the next day’s work procedures. After the meeting, the secretary can report the results of one day’s work by telephone. It is simple, compact and appropriate to lead the organization. In addition, in the spraying area, the mobile forward command was set up, no temporary telephone was set up, and the headquarters was contacted to exchange information at any time, so the work went very smoothly.

As for the experience of joint control in the two counties, Anci and Wuqing can be taken as examples. The Tianjin Special Administrative Office combined the two counties to set up a locust catching command in the central area, and then set up command branches in the locust areas of the two counties. Work, thus achieving the achievement of eliminating locusts without borders. The above three county planes are able to complete their missions quickly, thanks to their strong leadership and organization. “

In the early days of New China, it was the technological advantages and strict grassroots organizations brought about by industrialization that completely ended the locust plague that had been a disaster for thousands of years.

This article comes from WeChat public account: NetEase Airlines (ID: wyair163) , author: loyalty, wealth Yuan kung Pao