Locusts Swarms By Jonathan Byrnes

    When you think about current events, you can only think about the coronavirus. Is that a big surprise to you? America's new services focus a majority of their running time on the coronavirus in the United States, and barely any time on world news. Even then, the world news isn't what you would expect it to be. There are tons of events happening all across the world that go unreported to most American people. How many people knew about the locust swarms starving people in East Africa?

    A locust is a large grasshopper that lives on almost every continent. Locusts live in a sedentary lifestyle for several decades, even several generations. Small groups of locusts can join forces when the environmental conditions are perfect. They have growing populations where they become attracted to each other, eating more and developing faster. With a sudden rainfall, swarms could be brought together transforming a small swarm to one made of millions or billions of locusts. When these large swarms start looking for food, they become quite destructive when flying over borders looking for food, wiping out an entire region of crops.

    There are different species of locusts, and in Africa, you can find desert locusts the most dangerous locust and, these swarms fly long distances in search of food. One heavy rainfall allowed for desert locusts eggs to survive unprecedented numbers, producing a massive swarm. Amid the coronavirus, these locust swarms are threatening more than 20 million people in East African countries. To give some perspective, "a locust swarm 1 square kilometer in size can eat the same amount of food in 1 day as 35,000 people," about 247 acres of locusts. Kenyan locust scout Achilo Christopher said, "Within some time you just-- all the trees are just naked."

    However, these countries do not just let these swarms roam freely. Measures are being taken to help control the numbers, but they do raise health and environmental concerns. Traditional pesticides alongside a new biopesticide that is said to be more eco friendly are being used on the crops. The people have also grown accustomed to catching these pests in nets and then eating them since their crops are gone. The major concern about eating locusts is that they have been killed by a pesticide, which can very well still be in the body when it is eaten.

    Nonprofit organizations have donated over $160 million to help contain the swarms, making some progress since the first wave hit. The first wave hit in late December 2019, with a second wave following in April 2020. East African countries have been working tirelessly to contain the locusts and keep the food supply alive, but there are fears of a bigger third wave coming because locusts follow the direction of the wind. Following the direction of the wind allows for regions to be struck several times by these dangerous pests.    

Works Cited

Gebre, David Herbling and Samuel. “Locust Swarms Ravaging East Africa Are the Size of Cities.” Bloomberg.com, Bloomberg, 18 Feb. 2020,    www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-africa-locusts/.

Hager, Emily. “A Swarm of Locusts of Biblical Proportions Is Threatening the Food Supply of 20 Million

People in East Africa.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 20 Aug. 2020, www.businessinsider.com/locust-swarm-east-africa-kenya-eating-2020-8.

UN Environment. “Locust Swarms and Climate Change.” UN Environment, www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/locust-swarms-and-climate-change.

Uyeno, Greg. “What Are Locusts and Why Do They Swarm?” LiveScience, Purch, 25 Aug. 2020, www.livescience.com/locusts.html#:~:text=Locusts are large grasshoppers that, of other species of grasshoppers.