Millions of grasshoppers are invading the fields of Sardinia, destroying pastures and crops

Millions of grasshoppers are destroying the fields in the province of Nuoro, in Sardinia. Insects devour fodder, grain, grass

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

Millions of grasshoppers are destroying the fields in the province of Nuoro, in Sardinia. After the invasion of last summer, the insects return devouring fodder, wheat, alfalfa and much more. This year, as Coldiretti reports, they arrive earlier than 2019 and in greater numbers. They are ravenous and massacre of pastures and crops, the most affected villages are those of the Tirso Valley, in the center of the region, in particular in Ottana, Bolotana, Orotelli and Sarule.

"The mild winter and the scarcity of rain with practically halved rainfall, in a 2020 which - underlines Coldiretti - ranks as the hottest since 1800 with temperatures 1,52 degrees higher than the average, favored the appearance of the hordes devastating ".

The climate, in fact, facilitates the reproduction and spread of grasshoppers which cause serious damage to the countryside, but can also reach cities.

“Being polyphagous - underlines Coldiretti - grasshoppers affect not only crops in the field, but also vegetable gardens and gardens. The only hope is in the natural predators, such as the birds that could help to contain the populations of locusts that from the uncultivated lands, abandoned due to the crisis in the countryside for the prices of agricultural products below the costs of production, set out to attack the collected by devastating everything in their path ".

@Coldiretti

All this is the result, on the one hand, of the crisis that the agricultural sector is going through due to the coronavirus: abandoned lands are ideal places for grasshoppers, on the other, climate changes with long droughts alternating with intense rainfall create strong imbalances in nature. "A real emergency that - ends Coldiretti - affects agricultural businesses also affected by the economic crisis generated by the coronavirus with 6 out of 10 companies (58%) that have registered a decrease in activity".

Source: Coldiretti

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