He generally leads a shy and solitary life.
Whenthey get crowded together they become gregarious mini-beasts
Color adjustments from brown to pink (immature) and yellow (ripe)
The swarm can be from Paris or New York.
40 million people eat the same amount of food each day as 3 million people
Crops are destroyed and livelihoods are threatened
At the end of 2019, a significant increase in swarms was observed in Ethiopia, as well as its neighbours, Eritrea and Djibouti, and continued to spread, establishing itself in Somalia, Kenya and even reaching Uganda, South Sudan and Tanzania, albeit in smaller numbers.
Governments, which have faced such gigantic invasions in at least a quarter of a century, have struggled to locate pesticides, protective clothing, crop dusters and planes to fly over the locust swarms and spray them to death.
“Scaling up the operation has been the challenge,” said Cyrill Ferrand of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
“That first generation reproduced then laid eggs on the ground, and then we have this second generation that is now maturing.”
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Locust swarms heighten food security considerations in Africa during the pandemic.
Younger creatures are much more competitive when it comes to devouring vegetation. These swarms are now believed to be spreading along the borders of Kenya and Somalia, as well as into Ethiopia.
In early April, they began flying back to Uganda: A local official estimated that a single swarm stretched across five square kilometers (1. 9 square miles).
The short rainy season from February to May is the perfect time for farmers to plant their seeds in the ground in the hope of a bumper harvest in June.
After the droughts of recent years, the rains this time were good. But moist and humid environments are also best for lobster eggs to hatch.
Northern and central Kenya are classic pest habitat. The country has not seen a primary increase in more than 70 years, but farmers are seeing a large proliferation of locusts.
Jude Musili Mkulima, who lives in the town of Mwingi in central Kenya, is worried things will only get worse.
“Lobster moms came here and laid eggs. After two weeks, they have already hatched. That’s millions more than their moms. These little locusts eat everything, even our cows’ pastures,” said Mr. Mkulima, echoing Ms. Meseret’s observations. in Ethiopia.
In the face of invasion, more environmentally friendly insecticides and bioinsecticides are needed. They come from countries like Japan, the Netherlands and Morocco.
But with the coronavirus pandemic grounding most flights, shipping origination chains have become less reliable and more expensive.
“This has slowed down imports. And when the spraying stops, the consequences are known: the insects will increase. This situation has hit Kenya hard,” said Dr Stephen Njoka, Executive Director of the East African Desert Locust Control Organisation.
The helicopters needed to track the lobsters’ movements have also faced delays in their arrival at the domain (a shipment from Canada has not yet arrived) and the pilots will have to go through quarantine upon arrival.
The protective clothing for the fumigators — plus overalls, boots, goggles, and masks similar to those worn by groups that disinfect streets and other public places to curb the spread of the virus — comes basically from China.
FAO regional spokeswoman Judith Mulinge said stocks had been sufficient lately and they feared they would run out if delivery delays persisted.
The UN predicts if the outbreak is not brought under control soon, the size of swarms could grow 400 times by June, affecting mid-year harvests.
“When the plants emerge, the desert locusts will gnaw on those very young plants, which means that all efforts to cultivate will be wiped out. We may have other people with 0 harvests, up to 100 percent losses,” said Mr. Simpson. Ferran. .
In one of the worst-affected countries, Ethiopia, insects have eaten some 200,000 hectares of farmland and more than a million hectares of pasture.
The FAO estimates that about one million people in the country have already been pushed into hunger by the locust infestation.
This worries regional experts, who point out that the hunger caused by the infestation, as well as the lockdowns imposed by the coronavirus, can have a devastating effect on poverty levels.
Jasper Mwesigwa, a food security analyst at the regional intergovernmental organization Igad, said another 25 million people in the eight states that make up the organization are currently struggling to feed themselves and five million could be at risk of starvation in the event of a locust infestation. The invasion was not contained.
“This would be the highest number of food-insecure people this region has ever seen,” he added.
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