From the English site of the People’s Daily:

A tiny Chinese parasite is being bred by the millions in the hope it will decimate an infestation of the American White Moth that is eating a swath through forests and crops across China.

The moth, native to North America, was first detected in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province in 1979. It can denude a tree, and consume vegetables and crops in days, experts said.

Entomologists use the cocoons of silkworms to breed the parasitic insect and then hang the infested silkworm cocoons in areas that are infested with the American White Moth. A total of 300,000 hectares of plants have been attacked in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Liaoning. In Beijing, over 50,000 trees have fallen victim to the moth, while the municipal monitoring authority say the moths are still spreading in the city. [Full Text]

Additional information on the anti-moth campaign from Xinhua is available here, via the website of the state-run “Bio-diversity Clearing House Mechanism of China.”