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SERAMBINEWS.COM - Grasshopper threatens 2018 World Cup event in Russia. The insects are expected to attack the stadium grass.
The head of the Russian Department of Agriculture, Pyotr Chekmarev, said the field grass in the stadium could be a grasshopper's meal during the summer.
"We have learned how to deal with locusts, but how can we not fall into this global grass-related scandal this year?" he said.
He said about one million hectares of land in southern Russia once filled with grasshoppers, including in the city of Volgograd, one of the cities hosting the 2018 World Cup.
"All the people of the world come here, green soccer field, grasshoppers love it where a lot of green grass, how they do not appear when the game is in progress," Chekmarev said.
Previously, the Russian authorities also reportedly destroyed the stray dogs that were in the host cities of the 2018 World Cup fixtures.
Gangs of wild dogs are a common sight in cities, in Russia, driven by public reluctance to sterilize pets, so some become aggressive and beg for food on the streets.
Last month, Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko estimates about two million wild animals are in the host cities of the World Cup.
He urged the city government to solve the problem with affection.
"The state's reputation is at stake, because we are not cruel people who massacre animals on the streets," he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is hoping to use the 2018 World Cup moment to show his country as a superpower, amid loose relations with the West over Syria and Ukraine.
World Cup 2018 in Russia will be held starting from June 14 hinnga July 15, 2018, in 12 stadiums, in 11 cities.