Russia attacked by night butterflies Bashny.Net

You may have noticed that this summer there are not so many mosquitoes, but some white night butterflies are clouds. Especially if you put a lamp on the street. They also flooded Moscow: it is worth leaving the window ajar as they fly into the room. But we citizens think that there is nothing special about it. Butterflies and butterflies. In fact, this is a new disaster.
The name of the moth is Lymantria monacha. There was no such thing in our latitudes. The problems began at the end of last summer. And this summer came a formal disaster. The caterpillars of the nun are very voracious, eat everything in a row, especially leaning on pine and Christmas trees. The foresters are panicking.

The Moscow region was in a zone of special risk. With a nun there is one way to fight: strong poisons. Here in the Tomsk region, residents were forbidden to go to the forests: poison is sprayed from planes to the forest. It can cause problems for people, and dogs and cats will die. For 10 days the entrance to the forests was closed in Chuvashia. The same is true in Mordovia, and in Altai it is a heroic struggle, read the newspapers there. But there are too many people in the suburbs. No poison. So you can't. No one fights a nun. Forests are threatened.



Foresters of the Moscow region seem to rely on natural methods of struggle – that is, on birds. But from the experience of other regions, it is known that birds do not cope. Wasps and hornets also help. And it is hardly a coincidence that last year, for unknown reasons, there was a mass death of wild bees, and in this case, butterflies flew in.



Where did this infection come from? From the south, not so long ago, butterflies devastated the forests of Greece, then they were seen in Ukraine. Theoretically, nuns live everywhere south of the 60th latitude, that is, south of St. Petersburg. In fact, it is more of a southern insect.



In the photo - so they try to fight a nun in the West without poison, with the help of pheromone traps. There is no such method in Russia.

However, pests do not just appear. Biologists see the root of evil in modern agriculture. It is based on the use of giant areas for one commercially profitable culture. Like a grain or a sunflower. Such fields from horizon to horizon are good for some insects and uncomfortable for others. Insects are beginning to migrate. The balance is broken. Apparently, at some point, the natural opponents of the nun butterfly left, so she went on the offensive. And the way is open for her: for several years now in Russia boast of record harvests, for which the variety of grass fields is turned into an agrarian desert.



P.S. And remember, just changing our consumption – together we change the world!

Source: www.nowwow.info/#!Russia-attacked-night-butterflies-forests-with-air-pollinated-poisons/cjds/55775a570cf2e4994fbc1ac2