When there’s bad news about China, I get worried emails and phone calls from my family. Even when there’s no bad news, my mom’s worried I’m not eating enough, my MIL calls to make sure I’ve locked the door. Here’s one thing they haven’t warned me about — A plague of locusts! Yes, really.

This Bloomberg article has the details.

The northern Chinese province of Inner Mongolia has mobilized 33,000 people to repel swarms of locusts that may reach the capital during next month’s Olympics, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The locusts have come within 430 kilometers (267 miles) of Beijing and have infested an area of 1.3 million hectares (5,000 square miles), Xinhua said.
“We are aware and we’re coordinating with the relevant authorities to look into the issue,” said Sun Weide, a Beijing Games organizing committee spokesman, in an interview today.

The locust alert comes as 10,000 workers scoop up blue- green algae along the coast that will stage Olympic sailing and as Beijing grapples to cut pollution for the Aug. 8-24 games.

Officials aim to complete the Qingdao clean-up by July 15. Locusts in full flight may not be so easy to tackle. Inner Mongolia authorities are using 200 tons of pesticides, 100,000 sprayers and four airplanes to kill the pests, Xinhua reported.

The flying insects have infested land in Xilinguole Meng county, including Chifeng city, Gao Wenyuan, who heads Inner Mongolia’s grassland office, was cited as saying. Chifeng is 430 kilometers to the northeast of Beijing.

Via Beijing Olympic Games 2008 blog and several emails. Thanks guys!