I keep hearing about this locust invasion. Anyone seeing this? Or hearing more about it?

It is all over the Net.

Absolutely devastating.

Mainly in Somalia, Kenya, Sudan,Ethiopia, and now entering Uganda. Uganda has mobilized 2000 army troops to spray pesticides.In one day, the hordes can destroy enough food crops to feed 2500 people. Somalia will be in a famine situation soon.

Eat the locusts

Word is they'll be in Tanzania soon. Aircraft are being equipped to spray but the fear is the spray will kill by default everything as all the birds and small animals will eat the locust and larger animals will eat the smaller ones. A possible vicious circle.

Damn, I am heading to Uganda to hunt the Karamoja next Saturday. This ought to be interesting!

I've never been a participant in a Biblical plague before...

As an outbreak of billions of locusts continues to swarm parts of East Africa and devour its vital farmland, the United Nations warned Monday that the region, already suffering from extreme hunger, “simply cannot afford another major shock."

The horde of desert locusts has been destroying crops in Kenya in the worst infestation to hit the nation in 70 years. The insects invaded Kenya last month from neighboring Somalia and Ethiopia, which haven’t seen an outbreak on this level in a quarter-century.

Now the “waves and waves of swarms” are spreading further across the region, said Keith Cressman, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organizations (FAO) senior locust forecasting officer.

“Also over the weekend they moved into northeastern Uganda,” he told a news conference at U.N. headquarters in New York. “We’re expecting any day they will move across the border into the southeast corner of South Sudan,” where another several million people face hunger as the country struggles to emerge from civil war.

A single swarm can contain up to 150 million locusts per square kilometer of farmland, an area the size of almost 250 football fields, regional authorities have said.

A medium-size swarm of the voracious insects can eat the same amount of food as the entire population of Kenya, Cressman said, adding “that swarm in one day can eat the same amount of food as everybody here in the tri-state area (New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York). So not taking action in time — you can see the consequences.”
Food insecurity already threatens 13 million people in the region — 10 million in places affected by locusts, U.N. officials said at the briefing, adding that another 20 million people in the region are in danger of going hungry.

U.N. officials warn immediate action is needed before more rainfall in the weeks ahead brings fresh vegetation to feed new generations of locusts. If left unchecked, they say their numbers could grow up to 500 times before drier weather arrives.

Across the region, it has the potential “to be the most devastating plague of locusts in any of our living memories if we don't reduce the problem faster than we're doing at the moment,” U.N. humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock said.
While ground-based pesticide spraying is an ongoing effort, planes dumping pesticides from the air is considered the only effective control. The U.N. has said it will begin testing drones equipped with mapping sensors and atomizers to spray pesticides, Reuters reported.

The U.N. has asked for $76 million in immediate aid. So far just under $20 million is in hand, including $10 million released by Lowcock from the U.N. emergency relief fund and $3.8 million from FAO, officials said. The United States said Monday it has released $800,000 and the European Union has released 1 million euros.

“There is the risk of a catastrophe,” Lowcock said at the briefing. “The response today is not going to work unless there’s a big scale-up.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

By at least the 1930's, the British Empire had greatly reduced the locust problems of East Africa/Horn of Africa. The swarms started in the Arabian Peninsula after rains. The British would monitor those areas and kill the hatches before they got too large and unmanageable. Kenya still had some difficult times with the locust's in the 1950's.

It makes a person wonder if there is any monitoring for the mutual benefit between nations these days.

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Word is they'll be in Tanzania soon.

Interesting. In the past, prevailing winds and or the dry season has normally kept them out of Tanzania on a significant level.

Biblical population control
Western world will save the day, China will take over

May father had a friend who about 25 years ago was involved in spraying for locusts somewhere in Africa. They flew around ind a C-130 just above the top of the swarm, video looks like they are flying over a dust storm.

M

Where is Moses when you need him??

Last week one of the network news casts rana story of the locust now in Africa. Quite interesting.
C