A team of 2,500 trained specialists for pests control were mobilized to clear off the locusts that ran rampant in the eastern Shandong Province, the provincial agriculture authority said Tuesday. 

Officials with the provincial agriculture department said they were on high alert to any possible locust attack as experts have predicted a serious pest plagues this year as they have found large numbers of locusts have started to be hatched out since June.

The 2,500-member team was divided into 55 contingents spread around a dozens of counties near the mouth of Yellow River. They were required to keep an eye on local locust control for 24 hours a day and report to the headquarters on a daily basis.

The department also deployed two crop-dusting planes to spray insecticide in the locust-plagued region and about 33,350 hectares of locust-haunted cropland have been cleaned up.

In May, the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture warned that the year 2005 could be a tough time for pest control. The locusts were predicted to affect 2 million hectares of land and 24.6 million hectares of grassland across China. For Shandong Province alone, approximately 267,000 hectares of cropland would be affected.

Locust attacks have been plaguing Shandong for six consecutive summers since 2000. The province is an important base for China's grain production. The locust attack might dampen the summer harvest this year, when farmers were predicted to reap 35 billion kg of grain.

(Xinhua News Agency June 22, 2005)