Invasion of locust and steps to mitigate them
When we started to research about this we found indecisive news feeds and got tensed by their scientific names and researches. It made us curious and got us in hook. So, we strived to find answers but, unluckily we found less, remaining not documented properly. This article is based on research findings and documents from trusted sources. (You can find them on sitemaps) Let us open the questions for the readers and answer them in our comment section.
1. Where it was originated?
Locust consists of three main portions Head, Thorax and the Abdomen
Head
1. A pair of antennas
2. A pair of eyes
3. Three portions of mouth one which is used for cutting the food from trees, the other for holding it through jaws and the final one called palps to taste the food.
Thorax
1. Contain the body parts for walking, Jumping and flying and wings are attached to them.
2. Three pair of legs and each has three major parts Femur, tibia, tarsus or foot
3. Two pair of wings
Abdomen
[1]. Legs started to join them in this area where the ear part comes first.
[2]. Two pair of short, curved black holes through which the female dig holes for laying eggs.
[3]. Along with the side of the abdomen and thorax, a small opening called spiracles through which it breathes.
Male and Female are distinguished based on the abdomen point[2] characteristics.
Life cycle
Color Identification
Maturation period
Life-sentence
The above figures show the data for the desert locust breeding seasons between 1920-1948 and 1963-1976 spring and summer. The above images followed by spring, summer and winter climatic scenarios.
History of attacks
The first grasshopper attack was faced by Chicago in late 1871 and what they did was, they set their entire agriculture land on fire instead of using any organic fertilizers. Again in, 1875 a second attack had happened overseeing New-York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island followed by 1890. We all knew that the United States is the major cultivator of wheat. After their severe loss they imported wheat from neighboring countries.
Swarms are formed due to dry vegetation. They started to gather themselves and once they reach the humid conditions they breed and starts destroying the crops. The simulation of the antenna communication is shown below
These locusts can detect the environment changes and the surrounding activities through their antennas. They absorb the electromagnetic radiations from the environment, and they respond.
An overview of attack in 2019-2020
At the start of 2019 major cyclones flourished in African countries which created back to back cyclones. This made the locust dry in deserts and by creating a monsoon on the other sides. They started breeding in the parts of Africa. These locusts due to hunger travelled from deserts to the southeastern part of African countries like Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Somalia. FAO(Food and Agricultural Organization) accepted that this is the going to be the worst locust attack in Ethiopia for the past 25 years and followed by Kenya for about 7 decades.
A small sized swarm contains about 35000 of locust where a mid-range abruptly varies starts from millions which can cover over the entire Manhattan city. Hunger score in Ethiopia and Kenya are about 28.9 and 25.2 respectively.
A Mid-sized swarm can consume up to as much as it weighs(i.e)., it can consume about food to be fed for 35000 peoples a day in a day. So, these attacks started to form the Ethiopia and Kenya and then they slowly moved to Yemen and Oman through the windy directions made by the cyclones.
Weatherman states that there are more cyclones formed over the Indian ocean which will cause attacks to most southern parts of Asia. The repeated cyclones in Africa made their swarm to divide and travel them into north and south parts of Africa. Majority of them moved from Africa towards Iran arrived Pakistan and now its in northern part of India. There were more eggs found hatching on across the borders. Few which resides in Africa and due to southeastern windfall it arrives in India. India will receive the locust attacks from the two sides (i.e)., from Africa and from Pakistan which reached earlier on may end.
The government needs to vanish the locust with the help of state and district zonal officers by supporting the livelihood of the peoples. Statistics states that 20% of the world's vegetation is destroyed by locust attacks. Till now the UN provided 31$ million to the African continents but the countries requested 74$ million. Apart from this 10$ million had been provided by the central emergency response team for surveillance and spraying of insecticides. Comparing to the last January 2020 till now we have about 64 Million locusts active destroying the crops which are 1.5 times more than what we expected. Europe and the U.S are safe and cyclones are detected as of now.
Prevention
Prevention of locust attacks from the pesticides is trivial but, we can rely on environmental factors to prevent them.
These methods are followed after we had a major red locust attack in Uvarov in 1920 and failure in 1923. Individuals perform activities such as burning, beating, building barriers and digging trenches.
The government insists on spraying insecticides made from Fipronil and phosphorous which kill locust and in turn affects the food chain we have right now. The concentration of Fipronil is about 0.3-lga.i/ha (a level of measuring toxicity). Fipronil is not used in indoor areas like restaurants/houses and waterways nearby as it will cause adverse effects to mammals.
Fipronil is recommended by the Australian government(APVMA) Australian pesticides and veterinary medicines authority, but this is banned across the US and Europe as it causes health effects to bees, termites and aquatic life. Fipronil is also used for controlling sugarcane frag-hopper, turf and golf areas to maintain the scenery.
A spray of Fipronil in the soil will have effects up to a week thereby starts reducing its power after 3 days, but the residue of about 25% will remain in the top layer of the soil. It is not advisable for agricultural cereal crops. To overcome this problem is to grow more birds as they are the only natural predators for locust.
Apart from this BHC, DDT, Dieldrin and Eldrin are used. Synthetic pyrethroids like deltamythrin and lambda-cyhalothrin are used.
1. Where it was originated?
2. Locust anatomy (Gender Differentiation)
3. Life cycle
4. Maturation Period
5. Life sentence
6. History of attacks
7. Formation of swarms and how they start communicating?
7. Formation of swarms and how they start communicating?
8.
An overview of attack in 2019-2020
9. Prevention
10. Last but not least is this a part of agenda 21? (we had intuitions, but we can't find any related documents)
So we start from desert locust where it is originated and what family does it belong.
10. Last but not least is this a part of agenda 21? (we had intuitions, but we can't find any related documents)
So we start from desert locust where it is originated and what family does it belong.
Desert locust belongs to the family of Acrididae grasshoppers initially it is found in desert areas of Egypt and later migrated to Africa. It can be found in eastern Africa. Middle East and Asia.
Locust anatomy
Locust anatomy
Locust consists of three main portions Head, Thorax and the Abdomen
Head
1. A pair of antennas
2. A pair of eyes
3. Three portions of mouth one which is used for cutting the food from trees, the other for holding it through jaws and the final one called palps to taste the food.
Thorax
1. Contain the body parts for walking, Jumping and flying and wings are attached to them.
2. Three pair of legs and each has three major parts Femur, tibia, tarsus or foot
3. Two pair of wings
Abdomen
[1]. Legs started to join them in this area where the ear part comes first.
[2]. Two pair of short, curved black holes through which the female dig holes for laying eggs.
[3]. Along with the side of the abdomen and thorax, a small opening called spiracles through which it breathes.
Male and Female are distinguished based on the abdomen point[2] characteristics.
Life cycle
Color Identification
- As maturation period heavily depends on the climatic conditions. The Locust takes about weeks or months to become a mature adult. The Lowest probability is 2-4 weeks if environment condition supports them and 2-3 months vice-versa.
- Hatching period requires about 10-14 days(humid conditions), 25-30 days(spring), 70 days in cold weather.
- It is stated that a locust egg required a minimum of 20 mm of water to hatch, we can control the new hatching's if we can control the humid level in soil which is non-viable.
Life-sentence
- On average, it lives for about 2.5-5months, Their life-sentence depends upon the maturation period. The sooner they mature the shorter they live.
- If kept in a cage they can live for up to a year.
History of attacks
The first grasshopper attack was faced by Chicago in late 1871 and what they did was, they set their entire agriculture land on fire instead of using any organic fertilizers. Again in, 1875 a second attack had happened overseeing New-York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island followed by 1890. We all knew that the United States is the major cultivator of wheat. After their severe loss they imported wheat from neighboring countries.
Soon after they altered their plantation periods and started to grew birds which will eat locust, and they gradually recovered their cultivation. When the same attack came across in 1902 the birds and the altered vegetation saved them with minimal loss to the crops. After this, the locust somehow managed to cross the sea and went to the European countries where they had a frequent attack by locust in 1954 -1955, and they followed the U.S pattern to mitigate them form the attacks.
Africa which was a rich country in terms of natural resources and environment locust somehow managed to find its scent and settled there which later became a habitat for them. Whenever Africa has numerous cyclones they frequently suffered from locust attacks which were never covered by any media. As the African countries were one of the undeveloped countries they didn't have any insecticides to kill them, and they exist till now.
How swarms occur and how they communicate
Africa which was a rich country in terms of natural resources and environment locust somehow managed to find its scent and settled there which later became a habitat for them. Whenever Africa has numerous cyclones they frequently suffered from locust attacks which were never covered by any media. As the African countries were one of the undeveloped countries they didn't have any insecticides to kill them, and they exist till now.
How swarms occur and how they communicate
Swarms are formed due to dry vegetation. They started to gather themselves and once they reach the humid conditions they breed and starts destroying the crops. The simulation of the antenna communication is shown below
These locusts can detect the environment changes and the surrounding activities through their antennas. They absorb the electromagnetic radiations from the environment, and they respond.
An overview of attack in 2019-2020
At the start of 2019 major cyclones flourished in African countries which created back to back cyclones. This made the locust dry in deserts and by creating a monsoon on the other sides. They started breeding in the parts of Africa. These locusts due to hunger travelled from deserts to the southeastern part of African countries like Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Somalia. FAO(Food and Agricultural Organization) accepted that this is the going to be the worst locust attack in Ethiopia for the past 25 years and followed by Kenya for about 7 decades.
A small sized swarm contains about 35000 of locust where a mid-range abruptly varies starts from millions which can cover over the entire Manhattan city. Hunger score in Ethiopia and Kenya are about 28.9 and 25.2 respectively.
Weatherman states that there are more cyclones formed over the Indian ocean which will cause attacks to most southern parts of Asia. The repeated cyclones in Africa made their swarm to divide and travel them into north and south parts of Africa. Majority of them moved from Africa towards Iran arrived Pakistan and now its in northern part of India. There were more eggs found hatching on across the borders. Few which resides in Africa and due to southeastern windfall it arrives in India. India will receive the locust attacks from the two sides (i.e)., from Africa and from Pakistan which reached earlier on may end.
The government needs to vanish the locust with the help of state and district zonal officers by supporting the livelihood of the peoples. Statistics states that 20% of the world's vegetation is destroyed by locust attacks. Till now the UN provided 31$ million to the African continents but the countries requested 74$ million. Apart from this 10$ million had been provided by the central emergency response team for surveillance and spraying of insecticides. Comparing to the last January 2020 till now we have about 64 Million locusts active destroying the crops which are 1.5 times more than what we expected. Europe and the U.S are safe and cyclones are detected as of now.
Prevention
Prevention of locust attacks from the pesticides is trivial but, we can rely on environmental factors to prevent them.
- Insufficient rainfall
- Movement of swarms to areas unsuitable for breeding
- control effects of microbial actions
These methods are followed after we had a major red locust attack in Uvarov in 1920 and failure in 1923. Individuals perform activities such as burning, beating, building barriers and digging trenches.
The government insists on spraying insecticides made from Fipronil and phosphorous which kill locust and in turn affects the food chain we have right now. The concentration of Fipronil is about 0.3-lga.i/ha (a level of measuring toxicity). Fipronil is not used in indoor areas like restaurants/houses and waterways nearby as it will cause adverse effects to mammals.
Fipronil is recommended by the Australian government(APVMA) Australian pesticides and veterinary medicines authority, but this is banned across the US and Europe as it causes health effects to bees, termites and aquatic life. Fipronil is also used for controlling sugarcane frag-hopper, turf and golf areas to maintain the scenery.
A spray of Fipronil in the soil will have effects up to a week thereby starts reducing its power after 3 days, but the residue of about 25% will remain in the top layer of the soil. It is not advisable for agricultural cereal crops. To overcome this problem is to grow more birds as they are the only natural predators for locust.
Apart from this BHC, DDT, Dieldrin and Eldrin are used. Synthetic pyrethroids like deltamythrin and lambda-cyhalothrin are used.
Quote: Money can't buy health but the forest can. Plant trees, Save Nature.
For more details visit our sitemaps. Images are copyrighted from the various research papers and social platforms.
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