Seoul City Establishes and Operates 'Forest Pest Monitoring and Control Headquarters' from June to August

Promotion of tailored pest control by life cycle stages including wintering damage and larval removal through preliminary occurrence surveys
Expansion of eco-friendly control methods such as sticky roll traps, pheromone traps, and mustard oil

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government will operate the ‘Forest Pest Monitoring and Control Task Force’ for three months from June to August, when forest pests begin to appear in earnest, to minimize forest damage and inconvenience to citizens.

On the 31st, Seoul announced that from July 1 to August 31, the Forest Pest Monitoring and Control Task Force will be established in 30 organizations including the Seoul Metropolitan Government, 25 district offices, 3 park and green space offices, and Seoul Grand Park to respond to forest pest control and sudden pest outbreaks.

The representative pests in summer include the Giant Stick Insect, which looks like bamboo and eats leaves while moving to high places; the American White-Marked Tussock Moth, which spins silk to wrap leaves and feeds on them in groups; the Cicada Moth and Spotted Lanternfly, which sometimes massively infest residential areas causing disgust and inconvenience; and Oak Wilt Disease, where pathogens block water and nutrient movement causing leaves to wilt and die.

Seoul will conduct pest outbreak inspections, provide control support, and technical guidance. Each autonomous district and office will deploy about 200 monitoring and control personnel who will focus all efforts on preventing pest spread through forest monitoring, control work, and handling civil complaints.

Earlier, Seoul predicted the increase or decrease of pests this year through pre-occurrence surveys of forest pests starting in spring and is promoting customized control measures according to the pest life cycle. Since last year, by monitoring the hatching period of cicada moths in Seoul through NFC electronic monitoring of overwintering eggs, timely control has been implemented, significantly reducing cicada moth outbreaks.

In addition, Seoul is actively striving to maintain forest ecosystem health by using physical and eco-friendly control methods rather than conventional chemical control. To minimize pest outbreaks, the city has patrolled forests and parks since last winter, focusing on removing overwintering eggs to reduce larval hatching.

This year, concerns remain about the occurrence of exotic and sudden pests in summer due to warm winter and dry spring, but the city plans to do its best to reduce forest pest damage by conducting joint control with related organizations. Yu Young-bong, Director of the Seoul Metropolitan Government’s Green City Bureau, said, “We will minimize damage by conducting thorough monitoring and timely control centered on the task force to prevent the spread of forest pests during the hot summer.” He added, “We ask citizens to immediately report any suspected pest damage on nearby trees to the forest department of their local district office.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.