The Bureau of Agriculture of Taichung City cooperated with the Plant Hospital Bureau of Chung Hsing University, the Taichung Area Farmers Association and local farmers to release the flat-bellied bees on the Dakeng Trail.

(Provided by the Farm Bureau)

[Reporter Ou Sumei/Taichung Report] Because there are many longan and lychee trees around the Dakeng hiking trail, lychee stink bugs multiply and endanger the safety of mountaineering tourists. For the prevention and control work, 400,000 flat-bellied wasps were released in the abandoned orchards around the Dakeng hiking trail yesterday, using an environmentally friendly control method to reduce the density of litchi stink bugs and reduce the impact on tourists and the ecological environment.

According to the Bureau of Agriculture, many longans and lychees are planted in the Dakeng hiking trail area, and some of them are abandoned orchards, which have become a breeding ground for lychee stink bugs. Because there are often mountaineering tourists there, it is not suitable for spraying chemical pesticides. Therefore, biological control is adopted to release the natural enemy of lychee stink bugs- The flat-bellied wasp allows the female bee of the flat-bellied wasp to lay eggs and parasitize the eggs of the litchi stink bug, so that the eggs of the litchi stink bug cannot hatch smoothly and achieve the purpose of prevention and control.

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In order to strengthen the control effect and effectively suppress the density and harm of litchi stink bugs in this area, the Bureau of Agriculture will release the flat-bellied stink bug in phases in the abandoned orchards in this area for many times this year, and actively guide the surrounding fruit farmers to cooperate with the release of the flat-bellied stink bug, and use Litchi stink bugs are controlled by pruning branches, clearing gardens, or knocking out adults, hoping to reduce the number of pests through biological control and physical control, and reduce the harm to crops and mountaineering tourists.

The Bureau of Agriculture reminds that litchi stink bug eggs are non-toxic and can be directly removed and destroyed or scraped off with wood chips. People are requested not to catch hatched nymphs and adults with bare hands, to avoid the secretion of smelly glands from contacting the skin and causing injury. They can be caught and discarded in plastic bags; If you touch the smelly liquid by mistake, please wash it with plenty of water immediately and seek medical treatment as soon as possible, and call on mountaineering tourists not to destroy the egg card of the flat-bellied wasp hanging on the fruit tree.

The Taichung City Bureau of Agriculture released 400,000 flat-bellied bees yesterday to control the litchi stink bug in Dakeng.

(Provided by the Farm Bureau)