This Is My Primitive Tribe - Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Burning Pests

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

Jiang Xuan stood in the middle of the vegetable field. He stared at the insects eating the crops. All kinds of rustling sounds could be heard.

If he could not think of a way, all the crops in this large area would be eaten by the insects. Even if they planted tubers, the yield of the autumn harvest would be shockingly low.

“Chief, don’t be anxious. Think carefully. Since the shaman in the dream taught you how to plant, he must have taught you how to solve this situation.”

While Jiang Xuan was distracted, a pair of warm hands rested on his shoulders. The gentle voice relieved his nervousness.

That was Chi Shao.

Jiang Xuan nodded and took a deep breath. He began to recall the various experiences he had in his previous life.

The first method was to kill them manually. This method was the simplest, but it was also the least efficient. With the Vine Tribe’s small number of people, the crops would be gone before they could kill all these pests.

The second method was to use pesticide. This was the fastest and most effective treatment method. However, the Vine Tribe did not have any pesticide. This method would not work at all.

Then there was the legend of raising ducks to eat insects.

Apart from raising fish, the Vine Tribe did not have any other breeding industries. They did not even have a duck.

This method would not work either.

This would not do. That would not do. What should he do?

Everyone was waiting for the chief to come up with an idea to deal with these pests, but Jiang Xuan was helpless. This feeling was too uncomfortable.

“You guys go catch the bugs first. I’ll think of something.”

After saying this, Jiang Xuan walked elsewhere gloomily, hoping that walking and taking a look would bring him new ideas.

Sweet Pine and the others looked at each other. Everyone could tell that the chief was at his wits’ end.

Sweet Pine gritted his teeth and said, “Catch the bugs!”

Then he picked up a bamboo tube and squatted on the ground to quickly catch the insects. He would pinch the head of every insect and throw them into the bamboo tube. This way, he could roast them and eat them when he brought them back.

The vagabonds started moving again, and they were joined by Chi Shao and the others in the hunt for insects.

As Chi Shao caught the insects, she glanced at Jiang Xuan from time to time. The worry on his face was very obvious.

These arable lands were opened up by them, bit by bit. Chi Shao knew very well how much effort Jiang Xuan had put into farming these lands.

If the insect disaster could not be resolved, no matter how many fields were cultivated or how many crops were planted, it would be useless. They would only become food for the insects.

They were very good at dealing with wild beasts, but the tribesmen had no experience in dealing with such a large-scale insect disaster.

Chi Shao could only worry and could not help.

Jiang Xuan walked slowly in the field. He kept thinking about various ways to deal with the insect disaster. Unfortunately, he had never experienced the insect disaster himself and lacked experience in this aspect.

Could it be that the crops that he had painstakingly planted were really going to be destroyed before the harvest?

Jiang Xuan was very indignant. He walked to the pond.

“Whoosh!”

In the water beside the pond, a very large frog suddenly opened its mouth. A tongue shot out like lightning, sticking a flying insect from the air, and then slowly swallowed it.

Jiang Xuan’s eyes lit up. If only there were a large number of frogs in the field. They could eat a large number of insects.

Unfortunately, it was clearly unrealistic to catch frogs at the last minute. They could only rely on the nearby frogs to enter the fields to hunt for insects.

Jiang Xuan’s gaze dimmed again. It was useless to rely on the few frogs nearby to eat the insects.

Jiang Xuan had a splitting headache from thinking about it. Unknowingly, he walked back to the bamboo house.

He sat by the fire pit and looked at the dancing flames. Suddenly, something clicked in his mind.

“Firelight, the light-seeking nature of insects!”

As the saying went, one thought led to a hundred thoughts. When Jiang Xuan saw the flames, he naturally thought of how to deal with those damn pests.

The pests in the fields of the Vine Tribe were mostly winged insects that flew over from other places.

Because of this, when they suddenly appeared, they caused serious damage to the crops in the field.

This was because the Vine Tribe was unprepared and did not expect a large number of insects to suddenly invade their land.

These winged insects were huge in number and reproduced extremely quickly. They were extremely destructive to the crops and were very terrifying.

But they were not without weaknesses.

Their weakness was that, like most flying insects, they were light-seeking at night.

Every night, they were at their most active and destructive.

They relied on moonlight and weak starlight to judge the direction of flight.

At this time, if a large bonfire appeared, it would disrupt their flight direction and they would end up diving into the fire and burning to ashes.

Of course, that was the theory. Whether these pests would pounce on the bonfire at night or not, he would only know if he tried.

Jiang Xuan immediately walked out of the bamboo house and went to the field. He asked three of the vagabonds to stop catching insects and be in charge of picking up firewood. Then he piled them up in the fields where there were no crops.

All that was left to do was to wait for nightfall.

Jiang Xuan and the others tried their best to catch the insects while waiting anxiously for night to fall.

Time flew. The sun rose and set. Day quickly turned to night.

When night fell, Jiang Xuan lit a torch from the bamboo house and walked into the field to light up the firewood.

“Pi pa pi pa…”

The dry firewood quickly burst into flames with crackling sounds. Piles of bonfires were lit, and the flames lit up the night.

The flying insects that were flying around in the farmland and gnawing at the crops were suddenly at a loss when faced with a sudden strong light source.

They flew around randomly and then flew towards the fire in a spiral trajectory.

“Pop!”

The first insect flew toward the bonfire. After its wings were burned off, it fell into the fire and exploded.

This bug was just the beginning.

Soon countless flying insects pounced over like piles of bonfires. They were burned to death and exploded.

“Good!”

The vagabonds who had been waiting cheered. Sweet Pine was so excited that his face turned red.

Jiang Xuan stood beside a bonfire and watched the insects fall one by one. He finally heaved a sigh of relief.

This method was effective, especially when dealing with these flying insects.

As long as these flying insects were burned to death, the remaining crawling insects would not be so destructive. The crops of the Vine Tribe would be saved.

That night, countless insects were burned to death. The smell of burning filled the entire open space, making countless wild beasts not dare to approach.

The fire burned for an entire night. Jiang Xuan and the others only returned to the bamboo house to sleep when it was almost dawn.

It was the same for those vagabonds. They needed to add dry wood or dried bamboo to the bonfire often to keep it burning.

It was not until dawn that the bonfire gradually extinguished and everyone could go back to rest.

There was only one exception, and that was Sweet Pine.

He watched the last bonfire go out and picked up a worm that had been roasted to a burnt yellow beside it. He put it in his mouth.

“Crack…”

The worm was roasted to a crisp. Sweet Pine chewed the worm a few times and swallowed it.

He walked slowly through the crops, carefully observing them. When he realized that there were very few insects left, he finally felt relieved.

“That’s great. A few more burns should kill all these bugs. What we planted can continue to grow again.”

Sweet Pine stroked a round potato seedling with missing leaves and smiled in relief.