Crunch, crunch: Africa's locust outbreak isfar from over5 July 2020, by Khaled Kazziha and Cara Anna

Locusts swarm on a tree south of Lodwar town inTurkana county, northern Kenya Tuesday, June 23,2020. The worst outbreak of the voracious insects inKenya in 70 years is far from over, and their newestgeneration is now finding its wings for proper flight. (APPhoto/Boris Polo)

The crunch of young locusts comes with nearlyevery step. The worst outbreak of the voraciousinsects in Kenya in 70 years is far from over, andtheir newest generation is now finding its wings forproper flight.

The livelihoods of millions of already vulnerablepeople in East Africa are at stake, and people likeBoris Polo are working to limit the damage. Thelogistician with a helicopter firm is on contract withthe United Nations Food and AgriculturalOrganization, helping to find and mark locustswarms for the targeted pesticide spraying that hasbeen called the only effective control.

"It sounds grim because there's no way you'regonna kill all of them because the areas are sovast," he told The Associated Press from the fieldin northwestern Kenya on Thursday. "But the key

of the project is to minimize" the damage, and thework is definitely having an effect, he said.

For months, a large part of East Africa has beencaught in a cycle with no end in sight as millions oflocusts became billions, nibbling away the leaves ofboth crops and the brush that sustains the livestockso important to many families.

"The risk of significant impact to both crops andrangelands is very high," the regional IGAD ClimatePrediction & Applications Center said Wednesdayin a statement.

Locusts swarm on the ground south of Lodwar town inTurkana county, northern Kenya Tuesday, June 23,2020. The worst outbreak of the voracious insects inKenya in 70 years is far from over, and their newestgeneration is now finding its wings for proper flight. (APPhoto/Boris Polo)

For now, the young yellow locusts cover the groundand tree trunks like a twitching carpet, sometimesdrifting over the dust like giant grains of sand.

In the past week and a half, Polo said, the locustshave transformed from hoppers to more mature

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flying swarms that in the next couple of weeks willtake to long-distance flight, creating the vastswarms that can largely blot out the horizon. Asingle swarm can be the size of a large city.

Once airborne, the locusts will be harder to contain,flying up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) a day.

"They follow prevailing winds," Polo said. "So they'llstart entering Sudan, Ethiopia and eventually comearound toward Somalia." By then, the winds willhave shifted and whatever swarms are left willcome back into Kenya.

"By February, March of next year they'll be layingeggs in Kenya again," he said. The next generationcould be up to 20 times the size of the previousone.

Locusts swarm on a tree south of Lodwar town inTurkana county, northern Kenya Tuesday, June 23,2020. The worst outbreak of the voracious insects inKenya in 70 years is far from over, and their newestgeneration is now finding its wings for proper flight. (APPhoto/Boris Polo)

The trouble is, only Kenya and Ethiopia are doingthe pesticide control work. "In places like Sudan,South Sudan, especially Somalia, there's no way,people can't go there because of the issues thosecountries are having," Polo said.

"The limited financial capacity of some of theaffected countries and the lockdown due to thecoronavirus pandemic have further hamperedcontrol efforts. Additionally, armed conflict inSomalia rendered some of the locust breedingareas inaccessible," ICPAC expert Abubakr SalihBabiker and colleagues wrote in correspondencepublished in the journal Nature Climate Change thismonth.

Since "more extreme climate variability couldincrease the likelihood of pest outbreaks andspread," they called for a better early warningsystem for the region and urged developingcountries to help.

The World Bank earlier this year announced a $500million program for countries affected by the historicdesert locust swarms, while the FAO has soughtmore than $300 million.

Locusts swarm on the ground south of Lodwar town inTurkana county, northern Kenya Tuesday, June 23,2020. The worst outbreak of the voracious insects inKenya in 70 years is far from over, and their newestgeneration is now finding its wings for proper flight. (APPhoto/Boris Polo)

The pesticide spraying in Kenya "has definitelyborne fruit," said Kenneth Mwangi, a satelliteinformation analyst with ICPAC. There's been asharp decline from the first wave of locusts, and afew counties that had seen "huge and multipleswarms" now report little to none. Areas

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experiencing the second wave are notably thefarthest from control centers, he said.

It's been more challenging in Ethiopia, wheredespite the spraying, new locust swarms arrivedfrom Somalia and parts of northern Kenya."Unfortunately both waves have found crops in thefield," Mwangi said.

But without the control work, Polo said, the alreadydramatic swarms would be even more massive.

He and colleagues target the locusts in the earlymornings before they leave their roosting spots andstart flying in the heat of the day. The work hasgone on since March.

Locusts swarm on a tree south of Lodwar town inTurkana county, northern Kenya Tuesday, June 23,2020. The worst outbreak of the voracious insects inKenya in 70 years is far from over, and their newestgeneration is now finding its wings for proper flight. (APPhoto/Boris Polo)

"These plagues are part of nature," Polo said."They actually rejuvenate the areas. They don't killthe plants, they eat the leaves. Everything growsback.

"They don't harm the natural world, they harm whathumans need in the natural world."

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APA citation: Crunch, crunch: Africa's locust outbreak is far from over (2020, July 5) retrieved 30 April2022 from https://phys.org/news/2020-07-crunch-africa-locust-outbreak.html

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