An invasion of unidentified worms has forced 50 herdsmen and their families from their grassland homes, taking 20,000 head of livestock with them, in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, state news agency Xinhua said on Friday.
The worms are packed up to 3,000 per square metre and chew through the grasslands like lawnmowers, leaving only brown soil in their wake, Xinhua said.
The agency described it as the worst plague in three decades in Usu, about 280 km (175 miles) west of the injiang capital Urumqi.
Local experts could not identify the 2-cm (1 inch) long, thorny green worm with black stripes and samples had been sent to Xinjiang Agricultural University, Xinhua said.
Source: Reuters (BEIJING) – click to read whole story.
