How hungry little bookworms are taking a bite out of Japanese historyーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
Japan is no stranger to invasive species. But this tiny insect isn’t targeting crops or plants. Its preferred food, paper. The older the better, and it’s putting some of Japan’s historical documents at risk. For more, I’m joined by NHK science correspondent Terran Genta. So, Genta, thanks for joining us. Tell us a bit more about this bug. Okay. It belongs to the family commonly known as bookworms. Insects that feed on paper. Look at this book for example. It’s been damaged by a kind of bookworm. You can clearly see where it’s eaten away at the paper. This new species is known in Japanese as new hakshim was a ghost silver fish. I’ve seen it myself. It’s small and moves really quickly. It was discovered about a century ago in Sri Lanka. It was first detected here in Japan three years ago, but since then it’s been spreading rapidly across the country. At first, it was found in just five prefactures, but a new survey found it now in at least 19. Why is it spreading so much? One reason they just reproduce fast. Researchers found that unlike other species, the bugs here in Japan can reproduce without males. Every offspring is female. That means even a single egg can lead to massive population growth. Estimates suggest that in a single year one bug can turn into 130 and by three years you are talking up to 20,000 insect all from a single source. Institutions often try to document whole event or whole research, but that just make it easier for the bugs to get around because they damage variable papers, museums, and other facilities are treating them as a serious threat. They are spreading way faster than we thought they would. If the number of these bugs keeps rising across the country like this, eventually some cultural assets will be at risk. Well, Japan has such a long storied history. Have we already lost some of it? So far, there are no reports of national treasures or important culture properties being damaged, but experts here just a matter of time. One group even launched a website dedicated to fighting the insect. They are also providing free sticky traps and poison to facilities with outbreaks. But make no mistake, this will be an uphill battle. Once invasive species take hold, it’s extremely difficult to eradicate them. Japan is already grappling with the white mos from America which devastates urban trees and fire ants from South America which can threaten humans and infrastructure. When it comes to tackling these bookworms, sharing information and acting fast is our only hope of preventing further spread. It.
Japan is no stranger to invasive species. But as NHK’s Teranishi Genta explains, curators across the country are now racing to protect some of the country’s historical papers from a ravenous little bug.
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