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Plague of Locusts Cuz Why Not


Doc Reeves

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We have pestilence and evil taking over the burning world, why not add some locusts
 


BBC:

A spokesman for the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), called for aid to "avert any threats to food security, livelihoods, malnutrition".


Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are all struggling with "unprecedented" and "devastating" swarms of the food-devouring insects, the FAO has said.


The agency fears locust numbers could grow 500 times by June.


Ethiopia and Somalia have not faced an infestation on this scale for 25 years, while Kenya has not seen a locust threat this size for 70 years, the FAO said earlier this week. South Sudan and Uganda are also at risk if the swarms continue to grow and spread.


"The speed of the pests' spread and the size of the infestations are so far beyond the norm that they have stretched the capacities of local and national authorities to the limit," the FAO said. 


The only option left was "aerial control" - spraying insecticide from aircraft.
The swarms have spread from Yemen across the Red Sea. Heavy rainfall at the end of 2019 created ideal conditions for the food-devouring insects to flourish.


And the problem could get worse as the year goes on. Aside from growing numbers in east Africa, locusts have also been breeding in India, Iran and Pakistan, which could turn into swarms in the spring.


Locusts can travel up to 150 kilometres (93 miles) in a day. Each adult insect can eat its own weight in food each day. 
A swarm the size of Paris could eat the same amount of food as half the population of France in a single day, an FAO fact sheet says.

In November, the UN warned about the locust infestation in Ethiopia - saying that the creatures could spread into Ethiopia and Kenya if not dealt with. Some farmers in Ethiopia's Amhara region lost 100% of their crops.
Last month a locust swarm forced a passenger plane off course in Ethiopia. Insects smashed into the engines, windshield and nose, forcing the aircraft to land in Addis Ababa.

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From what I just read, the distinction between the two has to do with how the act. In low populations, locust act the same and are generally indistinguishable from grasshoppers. However, in higher populations, their behavior changes dramatically, and this is often accompanied with a change in physical characteristics.

 

Eta: the locust is a specific grasshopper species that has undergone metamorphosis , as described in Doc's link

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While we don’t necessarily have much to worry about if these things get to a large enough volume they can go trans-Atlantic and hit the Gulf Coast, Caribbean and South America. 
 

Little US history on what a swarm this has the potential to turn into over there:

1870s Rocky Mountain Locust Swarms

Edited by Doc Reeves
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4 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

While we don’t necessarily have much to worry about if these things get to a large enough volume they can go trans-Atlantic and hit the Gulf Coast, Caribbean and South America. 
 

Little US history on what a swarm this has the potential to turn into over there:

1870s Rocky Mountain Locust Swarms

Can the F-22 be fitted with a flame thrower? Asking for a friend...

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10 hours ago, Doc Reeves said:

While we don’t necessarily have much to worry about if these things get to a large enough volume they can go trans-Atlantic and hit the Gulf Coast, Caribbean and South America. 
 

Little US history on what a swarm this has the potential to turn into over there:

1870s Rocky Mountain Locust Swarms

wait, trans-atlantic? how so? good article, liked it but the wish they had a bit more on the theories at the end. still though, thanks for posting. very interesting.

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46 minutes ago, achooloco said:

wait, trans-atlantic? how so? good article, in liked it but the wish they had a bit more on the theories at the end. still though, thanks for posting. very interesting.

 

swarms of African locusts the UK in 1954 and the Caribbean in 1988

In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain. In 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean. Interestingly, eating locusts is, in fact, a common survival strategy in places ravaged by them, simply because there is little else left. The Hebrew Scriptures specify that, unlike other insects the locust is kosher to eat. There is a reference in the Bible about eating the locust by John the Baptist.

 

From 1988, sound familiar? 
 

MARCH 24, 1988

African locust plague worst in 30 years


ROME -- The worst plague of locusts in 30 years has spread from western to northern Africa and soon could cover more than 35,000 square miles of the continent, threatening renewed famine, a U.N. expert said Thursday.


Lukas Brader, director of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, said the world has not seen anything like the current locust influx since a 13-year plague that began in the early 1950s.

'The extent of the area which is currently infected is comparable to the height of the last plague,' Brader told a news conference at FAO's Emergency Center for Locust Operations.

'If we are lucky it may peak somewhere around July, August, September,' Brader said. 'We are not optimistic it can be controlled. We fear it will spread at least through next year.'

Desert locusts now cover 11,600 to 23,200 square miles of western, northwestern and northern Africa and threaten other areas that would bring their destruction to a total of 38,600 square miles, he said.

If the plague continues unchecked, prevailing winds will carry swarms east and south to the Sahel, which was devastated first by the previous plague and then by years of drought, he said.

Scattered swarms also have been sighted in southern Spain and could reach Greece, Sicily, Malta and Cyprus, Brader said.

FAO Director-General Edouard Saouma said although the organization has been forced to cut back on other programs, it will find funds to coordinate 'the war on locusts.'

He appealed for continued international aid for the affected countries.

Brader estimated it will cost $150 million for pesticides, aircraft, ground vehicles and manpower to fight the infestation 'in the coming three or four months alone.'

Because each locust eats its own weight of 2 grams every 24 hours, an average sized swarm covering 77 square miles would consume 100,000 tons of vegetation in one night, he said.

Crop damage could amount to 20 to 30 percent in West Africa and the same in North Africa if the swarms move north into the fertile agricultural areas of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya, he said.

'In the past, that meant famine,' he said.

Brader said if the plague does continue to spread FAO will urge the lifting of a ban on the pesticide Dieldrin, a DDT derivative that is effective for six weeks as compared with the four to five days of effectiveness for safer pesticides currently in use.

Dieldrin has been widely banned for environmental reasons, he said, adding, 'We would recommend it be used in low doses where there is no animal grazing and people are informed.'

The outbreak of locusts began near the Red Sea in late 1985 with the return of humid, rainy weather following the severe drought in Ethiopia and other parts of Africa, Brader said. From there the locusts moved west, borne on the wind, to Sudan, Chad, Mali and Nigeria, then north to Mauritania and the Magreb.

'In March, about two or three weeks ago,' swarms moved upward into Morocco and spread into Tunisia and Libya,' Brader said.

'This morning we had a report from Tunisia of a swam covering 154 square miles,' he said. 'That's a big swarm

 

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