Nuclear Pest Control: Nuclear Power to Control Pests

Insects are our friend on the one hand and a formidable enemy on the other. This enemy is the cause of our great loss and calamity. These make our lives miserable in many ways. Nuclear Power to Control Pests...

Nuclear Pest Control: Nuclear Power to Control Pests
Nuclear Power to Control Pests

Insects are our friend on the one hand and a formidable enemy on the other. This enemy is the cause of our great loss and calamity. These make our lives miserable in many ways. At present we cannot control them even with modern science and technology. Scientists believe that the main reason for this is their large number, tolerance, and omnivorous national eating habits. Nuclear pest control is a new hope maybe!

Using Nuclear Science to Control Pests | IAEA

Insects make up 50.7 percent of all plants and animals in the animal kingdom. Excluding plant jaggery, 72 percent of the animals alone are insects. So far 1 million insect species have been found in insect species statistics.

Where are the insects? They are found all over the world except one polar region. They can be seen everywhere in warm springs, salty lakes, petroleum-ponds. Even at 19,065 feet above the Himalayas, several species of insects live permanently.

As one can see, insects have been our biggest enemy since the beginning of the world. This is because insects destroy 10 to 15 percent of the food grains we produce all over the world - rice, wheat, oilseeds, and spices. In a science underdeveloped country like ours, it often becomes like 30 percent. Nuclear pest control is the new technology that can be used.

This type of damage is not only in the barn, but also on the farm. Their attack on paddy, wheat, maize, jute, sugarcane and other crops always leaves the farmer helpless.

As we generally know, public life is unsettled by insect infestations. Cattle and birds are not spared from their nuisance. Insects like mosquitoes, flies, beetles, lice etc. are spreading terrible diseases like malaria, cholera, smallpox, typhoid, dengue every day.

However, the financial resources we get from insects, such as silk, honey, wax and galaxy (shellac), cannot be obtained by any other formula or artificial means. There is no substitute for the role of insects in pollination. Again, many insects survive by eating insects that destroy crops.

As one can see, there are 300 million times more insects in the world than humans that’s why nuclear pest control is quite necessary. Apart from their benefits, when these huge numbers of insects share in all the necessities of life in the pursuit of food and survival, we are often at a loss.

The major problem in controlling insects (especially pest) is that they appeared on Earth approximately 350 million years ago (Devonian era). Therefore, it can be seen that insects have survived the complexities of various adverse conditions over a long period of time. So their tolerance is much higher in nature.

In addition, they can eat everything around them. The list of their eating habits is long enough and they can easily survive in new and emerging environments. Again, the various suppression techniques of science and technology that we have discovered can also evade.

The methods commonly used to protect our agricultural products or households from damage include: (a) Chemical insect poisons (b) Hormone use c) Physical methods (use of heat-light) (d) Mechanical methods (hand or Trapped) (e) Biological methods (encouraging and helping their enemies) etc. are notable.

However, the concern is that these control systems are weak in terms of effectiveness. Let's say the reason is the application of chemical pesticides. In this case, the use of insect venom several times increases the resistance against the target insects.

As a result, the chemical loses its effectiveness. In this situation, the scientific community is not sitting still. They are also trying to invent new repression methods. Attempts to control harmful insects with the help of nuclear rays are one such initiative. The history of the idea and research of the use of nuclear radiation in our country is not long. It started in the 60's of the last century.

Argentina Uses Nuclear Technology to Control Insect Pests | IAEA

The use of atomic rays—nuclear pest control

Radioactivity from nuclear energy and its practical technology is a relatively recent discovery. The radioactive element in nature originated with Madame Curie's discovery of radium.

It was later found that an object or substance could be radioactive, radiating an atomic ray or radioactive energy. But the fact that this energy is harmful to life and the body was identified much later (Becquerel, 1901).

Further, by experimenting with microorganisms, scientists confirmed that these radioactive rays could be harmful enough for any life. Based on this basic mantra, work began on its application in various branches of biology in addition to agriculture, food, medicine.

In about 40-50 countries around the world, nuclear radiation has been used regularly for food preservation and pest control. But we have not yet been able to use nuclear pest control beyond the laboratory.

The main reason for this is that the materials of this method are imported and the method of use is quite expensive. As a result, the use of radioactive rays to control pests has not become popular in the business community at a commercial rate.