An unknown species of plant eating worms has caused farmers to evacuate an area in Northwest China, taking their cattle with them.
The worms are green spiney creatures about 1 inch (2.5cm) long and act like a biomass that moves through the grasslands in the area, eating all vegetation and leaving nothing but bare soil behind. Their numbers are estimated to be about 3000 per square meter (40inches by 40inches) and they even crawl into people’s homes. One farmer says he has to sweep them out his door several times an hour or they would overrun his house.
The affected areas are located in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, which is about 175 miles west of the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi. The area has had problems with other infestations in the past, mainly locusts but they were brought under control by releasing ducks and birds into the fields which ate them. The worms, however, do not seem to have any natural predators since birds and other animals will not eat them.
One scientist in the area speculates that the worms are larvae of some sort of moths that are thriving because of the unusually warm and wet weather the region has had recently.
[Via: weirdasianews.com ]
