Locusts – A Humanitarian Crisis That Affects Many
March 10, 2020 at 6:08 p.m.
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Locusts are the world’s oldest pest and its most damaging destroying crops and threatening other economies. This is the most devastating outbreak in generations, it is threatening people’s livelihoods. Even a small swarm can devour enough food for 35,000 people each day. Moreover, the regions affected are where approximately 19 million people already face food insecurity, and another 20 million are on the brink.
The United Nations warns that the number of locusts could continue to skyrocket over the next few months and that the outbreak will lead to even more food shortages as planting season begins in the spring. It is a humanitarian crisis.
Climate change may be at least partly responsible. Locusts thrive on warmer temperatures and heavy rainfall. With more extreme weather conditions, like recent cyclones, the locusts have migrated to larger areas. Making matters worse is that some countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, lack the tools to combat the locusts.
In Somalia, pest controllers cannot reach certain areas due to civil war. People in Ethiopia also continue to suffer from violence. The locusts are coming on the heels on what has been a very tumultuous year for east Africa. Last year, the region swung between conditions that were either too hot or too dry or too wet.
An average swarm, which contains up to 40 million insects, can travel up to 150 km (93 miles) in a single day. Desert locusts live for about three months. Adults lay eggs that can hatch to form a new generation up to 20 times bigger than the previous one. The only method of controlling the spread of locusts is to kill them with insecticides at dusk when they land on bushes or trees or early in the morning.
Locusts or grasshoppers were once prevalent in the United States Midwest in the mid to late 1800s. The ultimate account of a locust invasion at that time is surely Laura Ingalls Wilder’s description in her fourth book of the Little House on the Prairie series, “On the Banks of Plum Creek.” The incident occurred in 1875.
“Laura’s father regaling the family with the fertility of the country, the abundance of their crop, and the rosiness of their future—and then the locusts arrive. The insects’ arrival is presaged by a strange foreboding: The light was queer. It was not like the changed light before a storm. The air did not press down as it did before a storm. Laura was frightened, she did not know why. She ran outdoors. A cloud was over the sun. It was not like any cloud she had ever seen before. It was a cloud of something like snowflakes, but they were larger than snowflakes, and thin and glittering. Light shone through each flickering particle. There was no wind. The grasses were still and the hot air did not stir, but the edge of the cloud came on across the sky faster than wind. The cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm.”
The insect Laura Wilder was referring to is the Rocky Mountain Locust (Melanoplus spretus) that strangely became extinct. It was a migratory locust that in peak years spread over the Great Plains from Canada to Texas and periodically devastated the crops of homesteaders and farmers. Swarms of this insect often covered an area larger than Colorado.
According to Jeffrey Lockwood in his book, Locust, the mystery began in the 19th century: Instead of another invasion during the next drought cycle, the locust completely disappeared by the turn of the 20th century, without any apparent cause. He called it the quintessential ecological mystery of the North American continent.
It was once the most abundant insect and it rivaled bison populations in both biomass and consumption of forage. Before the plains were settled, periodic swarms of migrating locusts were part of the natural rhythm of the grasslands, particularly during years of drought.
That situation changed by the mid 1870s, however when farmers and ranchers occupied much of the Great Plains. A drought of several years duration triggered a massive outbreak of locusts that swept over an immense area, destroying much of the agricultural production and bringing famine to many settlers.
Final Thoughts
One possible reason for the locust’s disappearance is that the insect’s eggs fail to hatch if they are deposited in earth disturbed by plowing or some other means. Cattle grazing may have also been involved.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. He has taught college courses on regulatory and compliance issues at Ivy Tech, Grace College and Butler University. Sherman has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge on all levels. Eclectic Science, the title of his column, touches on famed doctors and scientists, human senses, aging, various diseases, and little-known facts about many species, including their contributions to scientific research. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
Locusts are the world’s oldest pest and its most damaging destroying crops and threatening other economies. This is the most devastating outbreak in generations, it is threatening people’s livelihoods. Even a small swarm can devour enough food for 35,000 people each day. Moreover, the regions affected are where approximately 19 million people already face food insecurity, and another 20 million are on the brink.
The United Nations warns that the number of locusts could continue to skyrocket over the next few months and that the outbreak will lead to even more food shortages as planting season begins in the spring. It is a humanitarian crisis.
Climate change may be at least partly responsible. Locusts thrive on warmer temperatures and heavy rainfall. With more extreme weather conditions, like recent cyclones, the locusts have migrated to larger areas. Making matters worse is that some countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, lack the tools to combat the locusts.
In Somalia, pest controllers cannot reach certain areas due to civil war. People in Ethiopia also continue to suffer from violence. The locusts are coming on the heels on what has been a very tumultuous year for east Africa. Last year, the region swung between conditions that were either too hot or too dry or too wet.
An average swarm, which contains up to 40 million insects, can travel up to 150 km (93 miles) in a single day. Desert locusts live for about three months. Adults lay eggs that can hatch to form a new generation up to 20 times bigger than the previous one. The only method of controlling the spread of locusts is to kill them with insecticides at dusk when they land on bushes or trees or early in the morning.
Locusts or grasshoppers were once prevalent in the United States Midwest in the mid to late 1800s. The ultimate account of a locust invasion at that time is surely Laura Ingalls Wilder’s description in her fourth book of the Little House on the Prairie series, “On the Banks of Plum Creek.” The incident occurred in 1875.
“Laura’s father regaling the family with the fertility of the country, the abundance of their crop, and the rosiness of their future—and then the locusts arrive. The insects’ arrival is presaged by a strange foreboding: The light was queer. It was not like the changed light before a storm. The air did not press down as it did before a storm. Laura was frightened, she did not know why. She ran outdoors. A cloud was over the sun. It was not like any cloud she had ever seen before. It was a cloud of something like snowflakes, but they were larger than snowflakes, and thin and glittering. Light shone through each flickering particle. There was no wind. The grasses were still and the hot air did not stir, but the edge of the cloud came on across the sky faster than wind. The cloud was hailing grasshoppers. The cloud was grasshoppers. Their bodies hid the sun and made darkness. Their thin, large wings gleamed and glittered. The rasping whirring of their wings filled the whole air and they hit the ground and the house with the noise of a hailstorm.”
The insect Laura Wilder was referring to is the Rocky Mountain Locust (Melanoplus spretus) that strangely became extinct. It was a migratory locust that in peak years spread over the Great Plains from Canada to Texas and periodically devastated the crops of homesteaders and farmers. Swarms of this insect often covered an area larger than Colorado.
According to Jeffrey Lockwood in his book, Locust, the mystery began in the 19th century: Instead of another invasion during the next drought cycle, the locust completely disappeared by the turn of the 20th century, without any apparent cause. He called it the quintessential ecological mystery of the North American continent.
It was once the most abundant insect and it rivaled bison populations in both biomass and consumption of forage. Before the plains were settled, periodic swarms of migrating locusts were part of the natural rhythm of the grasslands, particularly during years of drought.
That situation changed by the mid 1870s, however when farmers and ranchers occupied much of the Great Plains. A drought of several years duration triggered a massive outbreak of locusts that swept over an immense area, destroying much of the agricultural production and bringing famine to many settlers.
Final Thoughts
One possible reason for the locust’s disappearance is that the insect’s eggs fail to hatch if they are deposited in earth disturbed by plowing or some other means. Cattle grazing may have also been involved.
Max Sherman is a medical writer and pharmacist retired from the medical device industry. He has taught college courses on regulatory and compliance issues at Ivy Tech, Grace College and Butler University. Sherman has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge on all levels. Eclectic Science, the title of his column, touches on famed doctors and scientists, human senses, aging, various diseases, and little-known facts about many species, including their contributions to scientific research. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
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