The defense ministry will send specialist teams to fight a plague of flies in districts hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The defense ministry will send specialist teams to fight a plague of flies in districts hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Large numbers of flies, spawned from decomposed fish from the freezers of seafood processing plants hit by the tsunami and sludge that is clogging up drainage ditches, are infesting the disaster zone.
Evacuation centers near fishing ports are particularly badly hit.
About 150 Ground Self-Defense Force personnel, organized in specialist epidemic prevention units of 15 members each, will be dispatched to spray insecticides.
Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa ordered Eiji Kimizuka, commanding general of the GSDF's North Eastern Army, to tackle the problem July 11. The epidemic prevention units will be dispatched at the request of local governments.