Washington; After ten years of drought, the rains have returned to the plains of Africa and green shoots have appeared in the parched fields from Botswana to Chad, Conditions are nearly ideal for crops.

But in an almost Biblical progression, a new peril has appeared an historic plague of locusts and grasshoppers, clouds of the migrating insects that strip the ground bare almost as it was described in the Boid eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field.

A more recent description tells what it is like when the locust nymphs emerge from their

Eggs buried in the shallow, moist dirt:

“So far.as the eye could see, they were boiling out. Every inch of open ground appeared to be bub- bling with young locusts as pod after pod gave up its contents. This went on for three hours from just before dawn, within three days, the whole of a vast egg field had been hatched out and the hoppers were ready to march”.

The rains, which make the egg lying possible and bring the crops that feed the insects, have brought a massive outbreak of grass hoppers in Africa,

The new plague has allies: wars and civil unrest in parts of Ethiopia and Sudan, which means that in- sect sprayers and surveys, cannot enter the areas.

The 10-year drought, during which the locusts disappeared, meant that previous insect eradication programs also want out of business.

In Sudan, where the Desert Locust patrols are based, only one airplane out of a squadron of 13 can fly. The last entomologist at the Agency for International Development in Washington was retired in June — but he has been brought back out of retirement on an emergency basis.

AID official Donald Reilly said, “I have never seen such a rapidly changing situation”.

A week ago, the Lake Chad areas were thought to be free of locusts, Reilly said.

The U.S. Embassy asked AID’ in Washington for an emergency grant of $725,000 to help Chad fight the insects.

The desert locust, like others of the breed, goes through migrations. Mainly centered in Sudan —where the centers are inaccessible to spraying aircraft —millions of locusts periodically gather in awesome, towering swarms, waiting for winds that will carry them to their next feeding and breeding ground, Migrations of 2,000 miles have been recorded.

Swarm is estimated to be cap- able of eating as much as 80,000 tons of cereal crops in a single day. The populations are measured by insects per square meter, a bit Jaeger than a square yard, some swarms measure 50 insects per square yard and cover whole provinces.

Article extracted from this publication >> August 1, 1986