Locust Attack India didn’t heard about this for decades. A swarm of dessert Locusts infested Jaipur on this Monday (25/05/2020). This may head towards Delhi and the city has been already warned regarding the swarm. The Locust Attack is currently active is Madhya Pradesh, Gujrat, Uttar Pradesh other than Rajasthan.
Reason for Current Locust Swarming:
Desert Locusts are found in parts of Africa and Asia. The reason for their rapid multiplication is the unexpected Cyclones Mekunu on May 2018 and Luban on Oct 2018 which gave rise to ephemeral lakes in the desert areas of Africa. The wet environment is the perfect place for the locust to breed and as it is on the deserts it is more favourable for the locusts for rapid breeding. Atleast three generations of locusts might be formed on the deserts.
During the summer 2019, the locusts swarming started and movement of Locusts swarming was on two directions towards the east Asia and central Africa. To control the Locusts swarming various operations have been carried out in African countries and Soudi Arabia, Yeman and Oman but for Yemen and Somalia due to Cyclone Storm Pawan on Dec 2019 the control operations were not possible and in the wet condition locusts continues to breed.
In Africa the effected countries are Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, parts of Somalia and Sudan. The swarming is now spreading Asian countries like Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and North West part of India.
Locusts Habitet
Common name: Desert Locust
Scientific Name: Schistocerca gregaria
Locusts are grasshopper like species with big back legs which help them to jump. During dry season solitary Locusts are forced together in the patchy areas of land with remaining vegetation. When rains return it creates prefect environment for the locusts to socialize and rapid multiplication. In wet condition they turn from their solitary lifestyle to group lifestyle or the gregarisation phase. During this phase their brain gets larger, its endurance power increase and even it changes colour. A new born locust which is called as nymph takes 24 to 95 days to become adult.
Egg --------------------> Nonflying nymph ----------------> Flying Adult
(10-65 days) (24-95 days) (2.5-5 months)
During swarming, locusts can move and are capable of covering large distance minimum 81 miles in a day and within 10 days it can cover area of 3100 miles approximately. Each locust can eat upto its own weight each day and as they are herbivores they eat all the plants and mostly target the agricultural fields.
Control of Locust Swarming
Controlling the Locust swarming can be done effectively during the first phase of the life cycle of locust. Collecting data regarding the weather, ecological conditions and Locust numbers, making forecasts of the timing and location of breeding, because the egg takes 10 to 65 days to hatch which is the best time to control.
Controlling Locust swarms is a very tedious task. Locust swarms contain 40 to 80 million locusts and may spread over a range of 40 km radius. One technique of controlling is spraying insecticides and pesticides using drones or helicopters. This can cause some problems to the environment. Another method is creating a barrier i.e. tracking the movement and creating a barrier by applying strong insecticides and pesticides to the crops there by creating a wall against the Locust Swarms, when they approach the area they eat the plants and they will die.
If the Locust Swarm is small then it can considerably work but larger swarms which are wide spread it is not preferable because the movement cannot be predicted and large area has to be sprayed with insecticide and pesticides.
Burning tyres, creating smoke, making noise, disturbing the Locust swarming using low altitude planes and catching them in nets are effective in creating an exclusion zone. These measures can temporarily control the spread but cannot withhold the long time.
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