The oldest method is manual control, which uses the phototaxis of locusts to kill them with fire. Secondly, there are ways to kill people with instruments. In the later period, agriculture began to be developed, special seeds were cultivated, and locust plague was avoided. Biological control methods are adopted in some areas, and other organisms are used to reduce locust plague. China has been a big agricultural country since ancient times. The government's main source of tax revenue also comes from agriculture, and people's production and life also depend on agriculture. Therefore, floods, droughts and locusts are called the three major natural disasters in the history of China. With the development of China for five thousand years, locusts have repeatedly threatened the land of China. In order to overcome this disaster, the ancients mainly adopted
Policy and technology are two major measures to deal with locust plague.
First, the feudal dynasty's policy of controlling locust plague.
According to records, the locust plague in China first occurred in Zhou Youwang period, and there is a cloud in The Book of Songs. Tianzu has a god, and he robbed in troubled waters? It can be seen that at that time, the ancestors already knew how to kill locusts with fire.
But feudal society still has great limitations. Due to the low level of social production, people deified the plague of locusts. For example, Confucius, Dong Zhongshu, Ban Gu and others all believed that the locust plague was caused by the rulers' poor politics. They believe that locusts are the punishment of the rulers by heaven, and they also firmly believe that locusts are? Magic bug? Cann't be killed. Under this concept, many people hold a negative attitude towards locusts and let them eat crops. In the early Tang Dynasty, the government rarely organized locust extermination campaigns.
In the late Tang Dynasty, this thought gradually changed, and a plague of locusts broke out in Shandong during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Prime Minister Yao Chong advocated exterminating locusts, which was opposed by many people, but was finally implemented. Finally, the locust plague in Shandong was controlled, and the court set up a special? Locust catcher? Control the locust control work throughout the country.
Since then, the management of locust plague in China feudal society has entered a new stage, and the rulers have introduced many policies:
First, improve the reward system and encourage people to catch locusts. For example, the Song Dynasty stipulated that whoever caught locusts would be given 100 yuan.
Secondly, the government has also formulated relevant laws to catch locusts and punish local officials who are ineffective in controlling locust plague. For example, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, it was stipulated that local officials who encountered locusts and failed to clear them as soon as possible were dismissed for investigation.
Third, carry out propaganda and agitation to control the locust plague. It was published in the Qing Dynasty, and many pamphlets on locust control were widely distributed.
Second, the main technology of ancient locust control
According to research, there are three main conditions for locust reproduction. First, there must be a large wasteland, second, there must be gaps in the land, and third, the vegetation coverage is sparse.
From these three conditions, it can be seen that the stability of water level is the key factor affecting locust plague. When the water level is stable, there will be a large number of wasteland, which will encourage locusts to lay eggs and cause locust disasters.
Therefore, the most fundamental reason for the outbreak of locust plague is the deterioration of the ecological environment. With the development of feudal society, the ecological environment of Huang-Huai-Hai Plain has gradually shrunk.
After the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the valleys in the middle reaches of the Yellow River were extensively reclaimed, resulting in serious soil erosion, which directly affected the safety of the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Up to now, the natural balance in the north of China has been seriously damaged, and climate disasters are frequent.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the Huang-Huai-Hai Plain lost its former economic center of gravity, and at the same time, locust disasters became more and more frequent. After long-term development and improvement, locust control technology has gradually deepened the working people's understanding of locust disasters, and on this basis, many locust control technologies have been created:
(1) Manual control is the oldest and most commonly used method. For example, using the laser properties of locusts to burn them out. Is it recorded in the Book of Songs? Set a fire at night and dig a hole by the fire. ? This is the oldest method. With the development of the times, this method gradually improved and became the most important method to control locust plague in all parts of the country during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.
(2) According to the evolution process of locusts, control them by stages. For example, the larva locust that ditched the ditch to kill the locust could not fly without emergence, so it was driven into the ditch and buried with soil. In ancient times, 50 people were used as a team, one drummed, followed by others, and the locusts were driven into the ditch with brooms and shovels.
(3) Knock with special equipment. This method is simple and has limited effect. However, with the continuous development, various forms were formed in the Qing Dynasty, mainly cloth bags, in which a coarse cloth with a width of 10 feet, 65,438+0.2 feet was used, and a wooden pole of root cutting was buried at each end. When locusts come, they can be trapped by the cloth falling from the front.
(4) The method of digging locust eggs is also very popular.
During the Tang and Five Dynasties, people realized that eliminating eggs could reduce the occurrence of locust plague, so they popularized this work. The main content of this method is to find out whether there is a small hole similar to a beehive in the field, dig it out with a shovel to see if there are locust eggs, and if there are, burn it with fire.
Finally, the locusts were driven away according to their habit of liking bright colors and strong sound waves.
(5) Prevention of agricultural zoning is also the most important method. First of all, people will carry out special treatment on the seeds of grain, such as mixing horse bones, aconite, silkworm droppings and other weakly toxic things with seeds and cultivating them to avoid locust plague.
(7) plowing the fields to eliminate the plague of locusts. Xu Guangqi thinks that turning the ground in autumn can bury the sun's spirit in the soil and kill the eggs of locusts.
(8) Plant crops that locusts don't like to eat, and avoid locusts, such as soybeans, mung beans, black beans, sesame seeds, cotton and buckwheat.
(9) Biological control method. Use the laws of the natural food chain to suppress and eliminate pests, such as protecting beneficial birds with locusts and raising domestic ducks.
(10) Poxvirus for locust control. In the Ming Dynasty, there was a method in Hubei Province, which was to puncture several holes in the captured locusts and then release them to spread among them. This can be said to be a precedent for controlling locusts with viruses in China.
(1 1) Eliminate locusts by chemical methods. Simply put, it is to use minerals and oily compounds, or poisonous smoke to control locusts. First, use lime and straw ash to control locusts. Xu Guangqi recorded this method in "Eliminating Locusts". plant ash and lime were ground into fine powder and sprinkled on grain, so that locusts would not eat crops.
(12) Oils repel locusts. In the Qing dynasty, oil and water were often mixed and scattered on the branches and leaves of crops, so locusts would not eat this oily crop.
(13) Smoke to drive away locusts. This method was recorded in the preparation for controlling locusts in Qing Dynasty. Smoke was lit with wooden poles, grass poles and other things, and locusts were driven away with the help of harmful substances in the smoke.
Third, the influence of locust plague.
Combined with historical facts, it can be found that locust plague usually occurred at the end of feudal dynasty, which is by no means a historical accident. Generally speaking, if the society is stable, the locust plague will be controlled, but in the later period of feudal society, political corruption, economic decline, poor war, and the locust plague will be difficult to eradicate, which will lead to a big outbreak.
This is undoubtedly worse for the people at that time. According to historical records, the latter gold has seven years of happiness. The plague of locusts broke out in Shandong, Henan and other places, causing serious famine and social unrest, and many farmers rose up.
Locusts not only destroy crops, but even eat people and destroy things. In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty, a locust plague broke out in Henan, and there was news that locusts attacked folk children. When there was a record of locust plague in Qianlong for fifty years, some passers-by could not see clearly and were eaten by locusts.
In ancient China, there were many methods to control locusts, which were the result of the hard work of ancient people. The plague of locusts also gave us profound enlightenment. We should not over-exploit and destroy nature, but live in harmony with nature.