Shanghai’s grueling two-month lockdown has hugely disrupted social and economic life in the metropolis, but the Covid-19 surge has created another, perhaps less expected, problem — the city is battling a fresh wave of termites.
Videos and photos circulating online show that swarms of the wood-munching pests have recently appeared in several of the city’s districts. As of Monday, the city’s hotlines had received about 1,400 calls for pest control, local media report.
Although the insects are not an uncommon sight during the spring, a season in which they swarm to reproduce and create new colonies, this year it appears their numbers are greater than normal in Shanghai.
Leng Pei’en, chief physician with the city’s center for disease control and prevention, told the state-backed Shanghai Observer that pest control work was disrupted by the lockdowns and other anti-Covid measures.
The city usually monitors insects in March and starts pest control work in April, Leng told the Shanghai Observer. However, Covid rules meant monitoring had to be suspended and other work — such as pesticide application — was also affected, he said. Missing this window for eradication will make it even harder to deal with the problem, Leng explained.
There are 54 companies that usually get involved in Shanghai’s termite control efforts, however, many of their workers were still stuck in their communities due to Covid rules as of Monday, local media reported.
On Wednesday, Shanghai lifted the citywide lockdown it imposed on April 1, allowing most of its 25 million residents to move freely.
The pest control companies will now be able to do more to help eradicate the insects, going door-to-door based on residents’ availability and local epidemic rules, Zhang Bingjun, deputy director of the Shanghai property management affairs center, told local media.
Contact reporter Wang Xintong (xintongwang@caixin.com) and editor Joshua Dummer (joshuadummer@caixin.com)
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
