Termites which threatened to ruin the Forbidden City are now
being controlled with high-tech devices.
Restorers renovating the ancient building in readiness for the
flood of visitors the Olympic Games will bring to Beijing in 2008,
warned urgent measures were needed to prevent termites burrowing
through the wooden structure. And they are now using high-tech
devices to detect, infect and eventually kill the burrowing
bugs.
The special devices, developed by the Zhejiang-based Deqing
Termite Prevention and Control Centre, have been placed along the
building's walls close to areas where termites frequently
appear.
The new devices are designed to lure the termites in and infect
them with a special powder.
Once a termite has been infected with the powder it will pass it
on to other termites when it returns to the nest, according to Guo
Jianqiang, director of the centre.
Guo and three other experts were invited to Beijing last week
for a five-day inspection of the Forbidden City.
"The device has already been used to kill white ants, which were
discovered in a local temple in Deqing," said Guo, adding that
white ants found in the Forbidden City are the same species of
those in the temple.
China has more than 480 types of termite, and with the bugs
migrating and reproducing in May and June, it is urgent to check
their spread now, said Guo.
An experiment conducted by Guo showed that a group of white ants
die within 24 hours after being infected by a termite that has been
lured into the device.
In the past pesticides have been sprayed around areas where
termites visit, but according to Guo it is not an effective way of
killing them and can pose an environmental threat.
(China Daily May 22, 2006)
