The locust plague that lasted for 2,000 years was eliminated by this gentleman

I wonder if you still remember the news of the locust plague in early 2020, when hundreds of billions of locusts swept across India and Pakistan, causing the country to enter a state of emergency, or the mistake of the "Duck-Duck Locust Killing Team". Have you ever wondered: Why did the tiny locusts become a disaster?

Image source: Mr. De-Xiao De

Locust Plagues from Ancient Times

The history of human agriculture can be regarded as a history of struggles against disasters, and locust plagues are an important chapter. Locusts appear suddenly (often after droughts), spread quickly, cause severe damage, and often cause immeasurable losses.

my country is a traditional agricultural country and has been plagued by locust plagues for thousands of years. Historically, locust plagues in my country were mostly concentrated in Hebei, Henan and Shandong provinces, and also in Jiangsu, Anhui and Hubei provinces. In severe cases, locust plagues could spread throughout the entire Loess Plateau.

The earliest record of locust plagues was in the Spring and Autumn Annals. In the 15th year of Duke Xuan of Lu, the first land tax was imposed. In winter, crickets were born. Crickets are young locusts without wings.

Catching Locusts, Tang Dynasty

According to statistics from the "History of Famine Relief in China", during the Qin and Han dynasties, locust plagues occurred an average of once every 8.8 years. This rose to once every 3.5 years during the Song Dynasty, and reached once every 1.6 years during the Yuan Dynasty. It declined slightly during the Ming and Qing dynasties, with an average of once every 2.8 years.

Locusts are migratory, voracious pests. Once an outbreak occurs, there will be a tragic scene of "locusts covering the sky and all the grass being eaten away".

Some friends may ask: Raising chickens and ducks can eliminate locust plagues, so why can't we let the "chicken and duck locust killing team" go out to eliminate the locusts?

The reason is very simple. Domestic chickens and ducks usually eat scattered locusts. Once the locusts form a swarm, the chickens and ducks cannot eat them.

Some people may wonder if we can make locusts delicious, can we solve the problem? However, when locusts gather in large numbers, they secrete toxic substances and are not suitable as food for humans. Therefore, it is not realistic to eliminate locusts by "eating" them.

Yao Chong, the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty, once used the insects' tendency to attract light to kill locusts by setting fire at night, killing a large number of locusts. However, this method is obviously not safe or environmentally friendly nowadays.

How to control locust plagues? Ma Shijun, a famous ecologist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has given the answer with his lifelong efforts.

Image source: Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

The long road home

Ma Shijun studied at Yanzhou Middle School and Jinan Middle School in Shandong Province in his early years. During his studies, he actively participated in student anti-Japanese and national salvation activities, but was expelled from school twice for such patriotic behavior. In order to reduce unnecessary trouble, he had to change his name from Ma Yiting to Ma Shijun, and then went to Beijing to complete his high school studies and successfully entered the Department of Biology of the Agricultural College of Peking University. In 1935, Ma Shijun was detained by the Beijing Military Police Corps for participating in the "December 9th" student movement, but Ma Shijun did not give up his studies and obtained a bachelor's degree in 1937.

After graduating from university, Ma Shijun worked in agricultural research institutes in Shandong and Hubei provinces to conduct research on agricultural pests. During his nearly 10 years of hard work, Ma Shijun witnessed the poverty and backwardness of rural China, and gradually realized that he had to continue his studies in order to better realize his ideal of saving the country through science.

In 1948, Ma Shijun studied insect ecology at Utah State University and the University of Minnesota, and obtained his master's and doctoral degrees in just three years. In 1949, the good news of the founding of New China excited Ma Shijun, and he was ready to return to China from then on.

Soon after obtaining his doctorate, Ma Shijun submitted an application to the US Immigration Service to return to the mainland of his motherland, but was rejected by the US government: "You can go back, but you can only go to Taiwan because Ma Shijun holds a passport of the Republic of China." In order to find an opportunity to return to China, Ma Shijun accepted the appointment of the University of Minnesota. In the fall of 1951, Ma Shijun went to the Netherlands on behalf of Professor Chapman to attend the International Entomology Conference. He took this opportunity to travel from the Netherlands to Belgium and France, and then rushed to the UK to contact the Chinese Embassy in the UK. Under the arrangement of the staff, he quietly boarded a passenger ship and entered the Indian Ocean from the Mediterranean. By the end of December, Ma Shijun finally arrived in Hong Kong. After more than three months of travel, he returned to the embrace of his motherland, realizing his long-cherished wish to return to his motherland and devote himself to the scientific cause of his motherland!

Image source: Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Combining reform and governance to eradicate locust plagues

After returning to China, Ma Shijun actively participated in the work of controlling the locust plague, hoping to solve this problem that had been left for more than 2,000 years. He led the research team to establish field positioning observation experimental stations in Hongze Lake, Weishan Lake, the Yellow Sea coast, and the Yellow River coast. These places are "locust nests" and are indispensable for studying locusts.

Based on extensive investigations, Ma Shijun's research team figured out the evolution laws and mechanisms of the secondary forms of migratory locusts, revealed the main cause of the locust outbreak - alternating water and drought disasters, and the secondary cause - social instability and poverty and backwardness, and proposed a governance strategy of "combining reform and control to eradicate locust plagues" from an eco-geographical perspective - by transforming the ecological structure, changing the conditions for locust reproduction and reproduction by building dams and controlling water levels, so as to achieve the goal of eradicating locust plagues.

In the practice of locust control, people gradually realized that the effect of insecticides on locust control was limited. The comprehensive control technology proposed by Ma Shijun gradually became the main means of locust control, which greatly accelerated the speed of locust control in my country. Since then, the locust plague that had ravaged my country for thousands of years has never appeared on a large scale in China again.

Image source: Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

With the continuous development of social production, the pollution problem is getting worse day by day, which is tantamount to chronic suicide. In China, Ma Shijun was the first to point out that "ecology is one of the scientific foundations for mankind to solve major contemporary social problems", and put forward the "holistic view and economic view of ecological balance", the "ecological principles and economic principles" that should be followed in economic construction and land consolidation, and comprehensively demonstrated the application value of ecology in environmental protection, industrial and agricultural production, economic construction and social development.

Image source: Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Ma Shijun died in a car accident on May 30, 1991. Just like his name, Ma Shijun's life was like a tireless horse, paving the way, rushing and leading the way, leaving us with the persistent pursuit of realizing the green ideal.

Review expert: Zhu Guangsi, member of Beijing Science Writers Association.

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