An "air force" of three "squadrons" of starlings will be bred in artificial nests in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to help combat a plague of locusts there, a senior official said yesterday.

The birds will be stationed on the north side of the Tianshan Mountains, the Yili River valley and the northwest part of the Junggar Basin, all of which are prone to attack by the insects, Mu Chen, director of the Xinjiang headquarters of locust and mouse control, said.

Li Jun, a locust-control expert with the Xinjiang department of animal husbandry, said damage to pasture areas will be reduced by 70 percent once the starlings are introduced.