The Forbidden Palace in Beijing is under threat from termites and the Beijing government has called in experts from Zhejiang province to tackle the destructive insects, according to a China News Radio report. The experts have been tasked with destroying the termites, without causing any damage to the ancient wooden building.
According to Hong Kong’s Mingpao , none of the pest control experts in Beijing knew how to deal with the termites. The palace management did a lot of searching before they finally found four experts in the small county of Deqing in Zhejiang province.
Guo Jianqiang, chairman of the Termite-Prevention Research Institute in Deqing County said that they can control the termites without drilling or digging holes in the building. Instead they use a trap to lure the termites, and then spray them with dry powder pesticide -- the termites take the powder back to the nest and infect other termites. One of Guo’s experiments showed that the powder can infect and kill other termites within 24 hours. Hopefully this method will destroy the termites without damaging the Forbidden Palace.
