Daddy Academy

Chapter 3321 Human-Insect War

Chapter 3321 Human-Insect War

Three days after the firefly farm's planting ceremony, the first rays of dawn appeared, and the air was moist with dew.

"It's sprouting! It's sprouting!!!"

Xi'er's clear cheers, like a little bird, broke the morning at Little Red Pony Academy.

She squatted by the edge of the field, pointing with her little finger to a few tender green shoots that had just broken through the surface of the soil, her eyes sparkling.

Robin, who was patrolling the school, rushed over excitedly, shouting, "Where? Where?"

Xiao Bai and Xiao Mi, who were looking at fireflies in the grove, also quickly came out of the grove and headed towards the vegetable garden.

"Look!"

Xi'er carefully brushed away the top layer of soil, revealing two tender green cotyledons no bigger than grains of rice. Pointing at them, she exclaimed with delight, "The watermelon seeds have sprouted!"

Xiaomi counted carefully: "One, two, three... six! All six watermelon seeds we planted have sprouted!"

Little White squatted down, gently touched the tender bud with its fingertips, and exclaimed, "They are so brave."

"And chili peppers!"

Xiaomi also discovered new green shoots in another row of the field; the bell peppers have sprouted too!

The news spread like wildfire. By evening, almost all the children knew that the seeds on the farm had sprouted.

Little Weiwei carefully recorded the germination status of each plant in her little notebook.

Dudu carried a small hoe and wandered around the vegetable garden, looking for places where she could do something.

Liu Liu picked up a watering can, sprayed it a few times into the air, and shouted, "May the weather be favorable! May the crops be plentiful!! God bless us—"

Perhaps it would have been better if she hadn't yelled; her yelling only made things worse!

On the evening of the fifth day after sowing, as usual, Xiaobai led the management team to inspect the fields when Dudu suddenly exclaimed, "Xiaobai! Look at this!"

She pointed to a chili seedling, where several irregular small holes appeared on the tender leaves, with fine serrations along the edges, as if some little creature had secretly nibbled on them.

"Shovel! There are bugs!"

Xiao Bai squatted down to examine it carefully, and gently turned the leaf over. Sure enough, he found several light green, hair-thin insects slowly wriggling on the back.

Xiaomi also noticed the problem, her face full of worry: "The leaves of the tomato seedlings are turning a little yellow, and the edges are curling up."

Dudu checked the watermelon rows and thankfully found no insects, but another problem worried her: "The watermelon seedlings seem to be growing very slowly... they're not much taller than yesterday."

They looked at each other, realizing for the first time that farming was not just about sowing seeds and watering. The land gave them hope, but also presented them with their first test.

"How to do?"

Robin's little face was stern, and his little hands were already clenched into fists.

Dudu said, "I'm going to ask Li Baibai for help!"

Old Li was invited to the scene. Wearing his reading glasses, he bent over and examined the plant for a while before straightening up and saying, "These are cabbage caterpillars, which eat tender leaves. The tomato leaves are turning yellow, which may be due to a lack of fertilizer or the soil being too compacted. As for the watermelon seedlings... they've only been here a few days, what's the rush? Seedlings need enough rest before they grow tall."

He looked at everyone's tense faces and couldn't help but laugh.

Liu Liu complained, "You're still laughing, Li Baibai? We're all so worried! You need to think of a way to stop the vegetables from getting infested with bugs, and also about fertilization."

Xiao Bai asked, "Li Baibai, are we going to spray pesticides?"

Old Li shook his head decisively and said, "We can't use pesticides. They're unhealthy and will kill beneficial insects too. We can catch the insects by hand, or sprinkle some wood ash on them. Insects don't like that smell."

"What is wood ash?" Xi'er asked curiously.

"It's the ashes left after burning grass and trees. It can repel insects and also be used as fertilizer," Old Li said.

Xiao Bai asked, "Where can I find this?"

Old Li thought for a moment and said, "Xiao Bai, you can ask your aunt. Maybe she can have some at her jianbing guozi shop."

Xiao Bai immediately called his aunt, who indeed had some. Xiao Bai called Du Du, and they rushed over, bringing back a bucket. Under Lao Li's guidance, they immediately began fertilizing.

When Liuliu first scattered ash, she was so excited that she grabbed a handful of ash and threw it into the air, trying to make herself look as carefree and unrestrained as possible.

Then a gust of wind blew, and ashes covered her face. In an instant, only her two eyes blinked on her dusty face, and a lot of ashes also went into her mouth.

Everyone burst into laughter at this unexpected scene.

But Liu Liu was in a terrible state. She bent over and vomited: "Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey~~~ Ugh—cough cough cough~~"

Why was Dudu wiping her face with a tissue? Xiaobai brought over a spray bottle to wash Liuliu's face, while teasing her, "Liuliu, you sprinkled that ash so evenly."

Over the next three days, a fierce "human-insect war" unfolded on the farm.

Every day after school, the pest control team members would squat by the edge of the field, each with a pair of small chopsticks in hand, carefully searching for cabbage caterpillars among the vegetable leaves, picking them out one by one from the back of the leaves and putting them into the small glass bottles they had prepared.

But not everyone dares to do this job. For example, Chengcheng, Xiaomi, Xier, and Liuliu don't dare. They get goosebumps when they see the wriggling cabbage worms. They are too scared.

So the ones who actually did the work were Xiaobai and Dudu. Robin wasn't afraid at all; she was responsible for holding the glass bottle containing the caterpillars.

Several cabbage worms were wriggling in the glass bottle. She deliberately brought them to Liuliu and Xier, scaring them so much that they screamed and scattered, leaving Robin standing there with his hands on his hips, laughing heartily.

She even volunteered to be the "pest control patrol captain," carrying her little pitchfork and patrolling back and forth in the vegetable garden, looking as if she were guarding the frontier. Every time she found a bug, she would shout, "Report! Bug found!"

"There's one here!"

Dudu, with her sharp eyes, spotted a plump cabbage worm hiding on the underside of the lowest leaf of the tomato seedling.

She held her breath and gently picked it up with her chopsticks! The insect wriggled and almost fell back into the soil.

Xiao Bai, standing nearby, instructed, "Be steady! Clamp in the middle, but don't use too much force, or you'll crush it."

Why capture them alive?

Robin peeked over, looking puzzled. Her steel fork seemed ready to spring into action; one thrust and it would be done!

Dudu explained softly, "Li Baibai said we can take it to the grove to feed the parrots, or to feed the birds in the grove. That's called ecological balance!"

Although Xiaomi didn't dare to catch cabbage caterpillars, she developed a new method.

She found some insect eggs stuck to the leaf veins, so she used a small brush dipped in water to gently brush them off and collected them in another bottle.

"We can't let these unhatched hatchlings go," she said earnestly.

What troubled them even more was that some insects hid in the cracks in the soil or were active at night, so Xiaobai would shine a flashlight on them at night! Everyone took turns on duty, patrolling the fields with flashlights, and calling the pest control team members to catch any insects they found.

Over three days, they caught seven or eight cabbage caterpillars, and collected caterpillar eggs from a bottle cap. Dudu gave the caterpillars and eggs to the parrot to eat.

The parrot was eating with gusto, and Old Li pointed at it and said, "This is biological control! We helped the birds, and the birds helped us."

The insect infestation was finally contained, but a new challenge has emerged, this time from the sky.

As evening approached, the sky suddenly darkened, and leaden clouds pressed in from the west. In the distance, muffled thunder rumbled one after another, as if some giant beast were turning over on the horizon.

Little Weiwei looked up at the sky and said seriously, "It's going to rain! The weather forecast says there will be heavy to torrential rain tonight."

Xiao Bai looked up at the sky with concern and said, "Will the seedlings be damaged by the rain? Or drowned by the rain?"