Locusts have reportedly descended on East Africa, devouring crops, trees, and pastures as they move in swarms that look like storm clouds.?
Locusts have been around for a long time, and are mostly associated with the deserts of Central Asia, the Middle East, and the Horn of Africa region.
Now, as the second wave of locusts threatens to invade East Africa, scientists are looking for some environmentally-friendly ways to get rid of them.?
And they suggest eating them, poising them or driving them to cannibalism with a peculiar scent.?
According to a Reuters report, swarms are the worst for three generations, encouraged by unseasonably wet weather and dispersed by a record number of cyclones. The destructive pests could cost East Africa and Yemen $8.5 billion this year, the World Bank has said.
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Locusts are usually controlled by spraying pesticides but the chemicals can damage other insects and the environment.
So scientists at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) are experimenting with biopesticides and the use of locusts as human and animal food as they look for environmentally-friendly extermination methods.
ICIPE researchers were part of a group that discovered an isolate from a fungus, Metharizium acridum, could kill locusts without harming other creatures. The isolate is now being used across East Africa.
Now researchers are pouring through 500 other fungi and microbes in their biobank in the hope of discovering another locust poison.
A one-kilometre-long swarm can consume as much food as 35,000 people in a single day. To fight the locust menace in India, the Indian Air Force (IAF) has indigenously designed and developed a pesticide spraying tool for Mi-17 choppers-?the Airborne Locust Control System (ALCS) to fight repeated locust attacks. The Chandigarh Base Repair Depot has?developed the ALCS for Mi-17 helicopters, informed?a top Air Force officer to ANI.?
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Source: Reuters