Expert rules viral idea to send ducks to tackle locust swarm just doesn't fly

FILE PHOTO: Ducks are pictured at a farm in Jiaxiang county, Shandong province, China, July 16, 2019. REUTERS/Jason Lee

BEIJING/KARACHI (Reuters) - China will not be sending ducks to Pakistan to chomp through a plague of locusts after all, an expert from Beijing's troubleshooting team said, disappointing netizens who had been rooting for the birds after news of the idea went viral.

A Chinese local state media report had said 100,000 ducks would be sent from Zhejiang province to Pakistan to deal with its worst locust invasion in two decades, generating 520 million views on China's Twitter-like Weibo on Thursday and thousands of comments.