In our drive towards economic growth and social development, mankind has not only melted the glaciers but also punctured the ozone layer. In the first quarter of the year, South Korea set a record for the highest average temperature and then experienced a massive series of floods in July and August. The environmental crisis further reached its peak with a swarm of insects covering forests and farmlands during the summer. Is South Korea going through the final stages of global warming?

In early July, rural areas of Korea were put on alert. An uncontrollable accumulation of gypsy moths covered lampposts, and their eggs coated the bark of forest trees. The insects ate every bit of green they could find, including agricultural crops. The issue was especially severe in rural areas where the food supply for the moths is abundant, leaving behind an unpleasant smell and dead insects all over the roads. A few other insect species, including millipedes and stick insects also caused problems by invading homes. Ecologists referred to this as a major environmental response and listed several causes, one of which was global warming.

Why Insects are Invading the Nation

The emergence of swarms of insects is not an annual occurrence. It broke out this year without notice, damaging the residence and livelihoods. Because insects grow quickly from an egg to an adult, the population boom occurred rapidly wherever the climate and food supply were sufficient. Correspondingly, a specific term called *pest bombard* was named referring such sudden raid of the bug army.

For instance, for a week in early July, the gypsy moth’s population rapidly grew in Andong, Gyeongsangbuk Province, invading nearby daycare centers and eating pine forests en masse. The moths posed a particular danger to children and those with sensitive skin due to the toxic inflammation effect that occurs on contact. Additionally, crops died out in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, after citrus flatid planthoppers consumed their nutrients and water. This substantial and direct damage to the farmland negatively influenced the domestic crop market.

According to Professor Bae Yeon Jae (Department of Environmental Science and Ecological Engineering), who is also the Director of the National Institute of Biological Resources, foreign species such as citrus flatid planthoppers usually proliferate faster and cause more damage because “they are beyond the control of the food chain in Korea’s ecosystem.” They also often leave excrement on fruits and vegetables, which causes brown marks that reduce marketability. Moreover, he stated that “insects that enter households usually follow bright bulbs and are called *nuisance insects*,” disrupting the normal daily routines of citizens.

Why this Summer?

A common explanation for this explosion of insects has been the increasing temperatures. Videomug, a video news broadcasting channel of SBS, reported that South Korea experienced its warmest winter during the 2019-2020 season, reaching an average temperature of 3.1 degrees Celsius compared to the typical 2 degrees Celsius. Moreover, fewer sub-zero degree days were observed last winter. Typically, the peninsula has an average of 25 days below freezing, but it only had six days last winter.

This change in the temperature in South Korea was not unpredictable. According to SBS, the peninsula has experienced an increase of 1.1 degrees Celsius for the past 50 years, which is what other countries would have achieved in 100 years. Professor Bae concluded as last winter was too warm, “the insects’ eggs took advantage, being able to prosper in the temperate summer.” He also suggested another reason in which there was “a disturbance in the food web that reduced the number of the predators of insects and increased the food resources.”

Devising Extermination Methods

One of the major reasons why pesticides cannot be used to control the insect swarms is that predators such as birds and reptiles may be poisoned when they eat the toxin covered bugs. Moreover, pesticides may kill pollen carriers such as bees, hindering the fertilization of crops and native plants. Other pests may thus be able to proliferate in the absence of predators. Therefore, eco-friendly measures such as pheromone traps, increasing the number of natural predators, and light-sensitive insect traps were used by the government in the affected areas.

Professor Bae claimed that “Bti treatment is effective in killing small insects such as mosquitoes,” referring to the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis subspecies israelensis, which creates toxins that specifically harm mosquito, blackfly, and fungus gnat larvae. This method usually focuses on small living spaces, while governmental projects to boost the number of predators occur on a larger scale. For instance, MBC reported that the Gyeonggi Maritime and Fisheries Resources Research Institute released 30,000 immature pond loaches into several lakes and rivers in Gyeonggi Province on August 25. The institute believes that the loach population can eradicate aquatic larvae in an eco-friendly manner.

Because the world is currently experiencing a number of challenges, the adverse effects of the bugs have simply been added to the pile. To properly address this ecological imbalance, it is important to discuss fundamental environmental problems such as global warming and suggest ways to reduce insect numbers without disrupting nature. Studies show that if the climate continues to be disrupted, similar issues will certainly recur. Therefore, in addition to specific environmental protection, it will be essential to deal with the pests quickly to reduce the damage for everyone.