Occupied Gali Residents Collect 84kg Asian Stink Bugs

Over one week, residents of the occupied Gali area in Georgia’s Russian-backed, breakaway region of Abkhazia, collected 84 kilograms of the dangerous agriculture pest, the Asian Stink Bug (Brown Marmorated Bugs) which destroyed nearly the whole hazelnut harvest in Georgia and occupied Abkhazia last year.

Locals from the occupied region started gathering the pest after the Russian side stated they would pay Abkhazians 1000 Russian Rubles ($17.5, GEL 42.44) per kilogram of Asian stink bugs.

The information was released by the Abkhazian news agency Apsnypress.

The offer from the Russian side is one method of combating the invasive pest, which started to multiply very fast this spring.

Russia declared that the bugs must be eliminated in de facto Abkhazia within a year, otherwise Russia will not allow Abkhazians to import their production into their territory.

From April 2, Russia prohibited the import of certain products due to the "critical phytosanitary situation" in occupied Abkhazia, Russia’s Federal Phytosanitary Supervision Service reports.

The Russian side made the decision in order to prevent the spread of the pest onto Russian territory from occupied Abkhazia.

Apsnypress reports that according to the so called Head of the Gali District Quarantine Service, Ramin Chekheria, in parallel with the locals, 100 working groups have been created to collect the pest.

“During the first week, we collected 84 kilograms of bugs. We plan to collect 300-400 kilograms in total,” he told Apsnypress.

By Thea Morrison

Photo source: opendemocracy.net