- Billions of desert locusts in East Africa are swarming at “unprecedented numbers” and pose a huge threat to the region’s food insecurity, the UN warns.
- The swarms are so bad that Somalia declared a national emergency. Ethiopia and Kenya are struggling to maintain the outbreak, and by Wednesday, swarms have moved over the Arabian Peninsula and reached both sides of the Persian Gulf.
- The swarms are a result of heavy rainfall and cyclones over the past two years, which provide ideal environments for rapid breeding.
- Photos reveal a skin-crawling look at locust plagues and how menacing they can be.
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Africa’s worst locust outbreak in decades is threatening the continent at an unprecedented scope. And there’s no telling just how far the ravenous creatures will travel.
Desert locusts are the most destructive of all locust species — known for their speedy growth and enormous appetites. A swarm containing an estimated 200 billion locustswas recorded in Kenya, and each insect can eat its own weight in food. That equates to about as much food as 84 million people a day, according to a UN briefing.
Keith Cressman, senior locust forecasting officer at the FAO, recently returned from northeast Somalia and told Business Insider that the locusts are like “a moving carpet of yellow and black objects” each behaving the same way, and packed together so densely that you can’t even see the ground below them.
The insects have already destroyed hundreds and thousands of acres of crops in East Africa, and the UN is calling for international help to quell the crisis. They fear the numbers could grow 500 times by June and reach 30 different countries.
These photos show just how damaging the desert locust can be.
Desert locusts are the most notorious — and damaging — breed of locust. They’re found in around 30 countries throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and can swarm through one-fifth of the landmass on Earth.
Feisal Omar/REUTERS
Sources: National Geographic, UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Each locust in a swarm can eat its own weight in food per day. A small portion of an average swarm eats around the same amount as 10 elephants, or 2,500 people.
TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images
Source: National Geographic, UN Food and Agriculture Organization
A swarm can spread over 460 square miles, with 40 million to 80 million locusts per half-square mile.
Njeri Mwangi/REUTERS
Source: National Geographic
Author Laura Ingalls Wilder describes how terrifying a swarm can be in her book “On the Banks of Plum Creek.” She wrote that she could feel the insects squishing beneath her feet and hear and the sound of “millions of jaws biting and chewing.”
Ben Curtis/AP Photo
Source: The New York Times
During plague recessions, or “quiet periods,” desert locusts typically live in very dry areas of Africa, the Middle East, and South-West Asia that receive fewer than eight inches of rain per year.
Njeri Mwangi/REUTERS
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
Locust plagues have been recorded since ancient Egypt, but there’s no evidence to suggest plagues occur with any regularity. Rapid breeding occurs only when the climate is favorable, making them somewhat difficult to track.
Feisal Omar/REUTERS
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
In 1875, the largest locust plague in history turned US skies black, when a swarm 1,800 miles long and 110 miles wide flew over the Midwest. Scientists believe there were trillions of “Rocky Mountain Locusts,” a type of insect that’s now extinct.
Culture Club/Getty Images
Source: The New York Times
But today’s desert locusts are just as havoc-wreaking. According to Dominique Burgeon, an emergency services director at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the current outbreak in Africa is “an unprecedented situation.”
TONY KARUMBA/AFP via Getty Images
Source: Scientific American
During plagues, desert locusts can spread over millions of miles and travel into parts of 60 countries. This affects over 20% of the earth’s land surface, and according to the UN, plagues can damage the livelihoods for one-tenth of the world’s population.