A serious pine moth infestation in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is threatening the local economy with extensive damage to pine trees that produce resin for distilling turpentine.
More than 36,000 hectares of pine forest in the region have been attacked by moth caterpillars this year, an area more than two times larger than the forest region damaged last year, the People's Daily reported Thursday.
The local forestry authority estimated that about 53,333 hectares of land would be damaged by pine moths in the region by the end of the year.
The region is one of the biggest turpentine production bases in China, and the local forestry authority estimated that the direct economic loss will hit 32 million yuan ($4.69 million) this year.
A severe pine moth attack could reduce the turpentine output and kill off thousands of trees, China Central Television reported earlier. The pine moth caterpillar burrows into the bark of pine trees and blocks the release of turpentine resin.
Luo Jitong, director of insect prevention at the regional forestry bureau, said the drought in southern China combined with high temperatures in early February created a favorable environment for the pine moth to grow.
Luo said the high temperatures have also weakened forest resistance to pine moths, according to People's Daily.
The report said the region suffered a large scale pine moth attack in 2006.
A salesman for a turpentine company in Guigang told the Global Times Thursday that turpentine production usually begins in the latter half of the year.
But he added that business may be affected if less turpentine resin is extracted from pine trees.
"The drought cut the output of turpentine all through the region but it is still hard to project the economic loss of companies like ours when we start producing later on," said the salesman.
The pine moth has also invaded Northeast China's Liaoning Province, where the provincial forestry authority predicts that 106,000 hectares of pine forest will be damaged this year, Liaoning Daily reported earlier.
Yidu and Songzi in Central China's Hubei Province reported 2,320 hectares of pine forest damaged by pine moths. Forestry bureaus in the two cities hired a helicopter on Sunday to spray bio-pesticide 58 times in an effort to kill the pests, according to an earlier report by the Xinhua News Agency.
Huang Meng, a pine farmer, is not worried about the drop in production.
"Pine moths basically die out in my forest," said Huang who owns a 53-hectare pine tree farm in Shangsi, Guangxi.
Huang sprayed bio-pesticide specially made for pine pests twice recently and most of his pine trees revived, according to a report by Fangchenggang Daily Thursday.
The Guangxi forestry authority has bio-pesticide and pest control equipment to help reduce further losses.
Experts were also sent to the infested areas.