In some areas of the world, parasites are invading various types of crops and this is of considerable concern. Let’s see what’s happening.
Pests are certainly harmful to crops but their increase may be due to something wrong in the environment.
TAKING CARE OF THE ENVIRONMENT
We often forget how important it is to take care of the environment around us which is our home. The earth, in fact, is one and only and all the actions we carry out today could have repercussions on those who inhabit it in the future.
Yet, human beings often (and willingly) indulge in carelessness, forgetting that there is no other planet to live on. Which causes unique disasters.
In recent months, in addition to numerous other threats , field crops have come under fire due to a problem. Especially in the USA, some crops have been attacked by numerous insects and parasites. The crops that suffered the most were corn fields.
What parasite is it
The parasite in question has been identified by scholars as Helicoverpa Zea . The insect is capable of attacking up to over a hundred different crops : aubergines, tomatoes and peppers are some of these. It is not excluded that the parasites will soon head towards new types of vegetables.
Adult specimens love to live at night . Reacting to light-type radiation when it is dark, they can be trapped by light traps, in particular, those with ultraviolet light. In addition to light, aggregation or sexual pheromones can be used to trap them.
The causes for their invasion are multiple but they are all connected to the state of planet earth. One of the main problems is caused by global warming . Being migratory parasites, they can move from area to area and prefer places where the climate is mild. The cold, in fact, would arrest their development.
The more areas with mild climates increase, due to global warming, the more parasites are able to choose more territories to occupy where they can proliferate. Furthermore, scientists at the University of North Carolina have verified that heat can increase hunger in these insects.
Not just the USA, other areas of the world have also been affected, even where the climate is known to be much cooler. These are Canada, Russia, Norway, Finland and Iceland.
Furthermore, an opposite problem can arise : if it hasn’t rained for a long time due to drought, some crops could disappear completely, contributing to the disappearance of many organisms fundamental to the balance of our ecosystem.