LOCUSTS

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COMMON NAME: Locusts

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Acrididae

TYPE: Invertebrates

DIET: Herbivore

GROUP NAME: Swarm

AVERAGE LIFE SPAN: Several months

SIZE: 0.5 to 3 inches

WEIGHT: 0.07 ounces

SIZE RELATIVE TO A PAPER CLIP:
Locusts have been feared and revered throughout history. Related to grasshoppers, these insects form enormous swarms that spread across regions, devouring crops and leaving serious agricultural damage in their wake. Plagues of locusts have devastated societies since the Pharaohs led ancient Egypt, and they still wreak havoc today.

Locust swarms are typically in motion and can cover vast distances—some species may travel 81 miles or more a day. They can stay in the air for long periods, regularly taking nonstop trips across the Red Sea. In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain, while in 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean, a trip of more than 3,100 miles in just 10 days.

Locust swarms devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage, which can lead to famine and starvation. Locusts occur in many parts of the world, but today locusts are most destructive in subsistence farming regions of Africa.A plague of locusts can be devastating and continues to threaten the very economic livelihood of countries and one-tenth of the world's humans. Found in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, they inhabit some 60 countries and can cover one-fifth of Earth's land surface. The locusts have damaged about 70,000 hectares of land in Somalia and neighbouring Ethiopia, threatening food supplies in both countries and the livelihoods of farming communities, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said.

Locusts and grasshoppers are acridids, i.e. short-horned insects that belong to a Family called Acrididae in the Orthoptera Order, which also encompasses crickets and long-horned grasshoppers.

Unlike the grasshopper, the Desert Locust has the ability to change its behaviour and appearance to suit particular environmental conditions

Locusts differ from grasshoppers by their capacity to react to high densities. Locusts have a lifespan of at most eight weeks during which they reproduce and die.

Locusts eggs hatch within 10 to 20 days

Depending on temperature and moisture conditions, locusts eggs hatch within 10 to 20 days. Female locusts lay eggs shortly after mating in moist sand soils. Heavy rains prompt locust eggs to hatch.

Eating locusts can prevent heart cancer

A meal composed of the locusts can prevent killer diseases such as cancer among a host of other deadly diseases.

Locusts contain high levels of chemicals known as phytosterols that could control heart-related diseases

Desert locusts contain a rich composition of compounds known as sterols, which in turn have cholesterol-lowering properties, thereby reducing the risk of heart disease.

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Prevention

There are many reasons why it’s difficult to control or prevent a plague of locusts, including the remoteness and breadth of the areas across which they’re spread and limited resources in some of the affected countries. But experts can look at past weather patterns and historical records to identify the areas where swarms might occur and spray those areas with chemicals.

INTERESTING FACTS

·         A swarm of locusts can contain as many as 80 million locusts.

·         They have insatiable appetite.

·         When food runs out, they turn cannibal.

·         They have serrated jaws.

·         They are agile flyers.

·         They are different from grasshoppers despite belonging to the same Family.

·         They are waterproof and repeal most liquid poisons.