 BEIJING
- The city that is home to China's famed terra-cotta warriors is
under attack by ants that are gnawing their way through ancient
landmarks and shops.
Xi'an, on
China's central plains, has been plagued by white ants for centuries,
but the problem has grown in recent years, the China Daily reported
Thursday. Efforts to find other species to prey on the insects
have failed.
"It is
going to be a disaster," Gao Lianggang, director of the White
Ant Control Research Institute in Xi'an, was quoted as saying.
"With the climate getting warmer and warmer, the disaster
will become more serious."
The terra-cotta
warriors - a life-size army of soldiers, horses and chariots -
were found in the 1970s in the 2,200-year-old tomb of Qin, China's
first emperor, on the outskirts of Xi'an, a former imperial capital.
The China
Daily did not mention any specific threat to the warriors, but
ants have destroyed shops on one of the city's busiest streets
and forced others to close, the newspaper said. Ants have damaged
17 of Xi'an's 24 ancient buildings, including a mosque, a pagoda
and a museum.
"We tried
many ways to control the insects, including cultivating the natural
enemies of white ants. But after a while these natural enemies
began to peacefully coexist with the white ants," Gao said.
The ants eat
food in homes, burrow into clothes and gnaw wood and electrical
cables, the newspaper said.
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