Butterfly massacre in Vietnam

Villagers killed 3.5m butterfly larvae

A scheme in Vietnam to pay villagers to destroy crop-eating butterfly larvae hit problems when they killed 3.5 million grubs in three days.

Officials promised 1000 dong per 50 caterpillars

Officials at Xuan Loc village in northern Phu Tho province had offered 1,000 dong, about seven US cents, for every 50 dead caterpillars.

But in three nights the villagers killed so many of the grubs that officials were unable to pay them.

Bui Xuan Binh, deputy chairman of Xuan Loc commune, said some farmers were upset when officials tried to reduce the bounty to 1,000 dong for 150 larvae.

Maize at risk

He added that some people had used "very high-tech means" including electricity and kerosene to kill the larvae which were threatening maize crops.

The larvae hunt, which ran from 9-12 October, involved several thousand people from more than 560 families.

The BBC Hanoi correspondent says small rewards to help pest eradication are common in the region.

A similar programme in September resulted in the death of 1.25 million mice at one cent a time.