CANMORE, Alta. – Locust outbreaks in tropical countries are less severe than in the past, yet a recent situation in northern Africa revealed international agencies do not move quickly enough to avert a crisis, said Michel Lecoq of France’s locust ecology and control unit.
The specialist in locust management in tropical countries told a recent International Orthopterists Society meeting in Canmore that old control concepts focusing on the locust need to be replaced with new programs that manage the people who have the knowledge to effectively control the insects.
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“We have to be better organized,” said Lecoq.
The society is made up of scientists studying crickets, grasshoppers and locusts. Locusts are grasshoppers that swarm.
Research is available on many aspects of locusts including behaviour patterns and physical makeup, which explains why they transform from solitary insects to a gregarious form where they swarm and move en masse to new territory.
“The rate of improvement of locust control will be determined by the rate at which recent research findings are communicated,” he said.
Locusts are a major threat to poor African nations where many crops are at high risk for desert locusts.
In 2003-05, this area experienced its worst outbreak since 1988. Swarms spread across the northern part of the continent and covered thousands of acres, eventually moving into southern Portugal, parts of Spain, southern France, Cyprus and Israel.
Insecticides were ultimately sprayed on the ground and by air covering 32.3 million acres, but not until crops were lost and farmers left devastated.
Locust watchers knew in August 2003 the situation was going to be serious. By October there was a plague. On Oct. 23, 2003, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations requested international emergency assistance. Most of the aid did not arrive until early 2004 and some of the promised money could not be spent until 2005.
Lecoq said there has been a weakening of preventive controls after 25 years of remission. He said there is an absence of emergency planning and slow mobilization of relief measures when swarms appear.
He recommended an international plan that includes a reserve fund to buy control agents because developing countries cannot manage on their own when there is a threat.
Further, locust control programs need to involve government, media, technicians, scientists and farmers to share information and help educate people about possible controls.
Another challenge in dealing with these outbreaks is a perception problem, said Ralf Peveling of the University of Basel in Switzerland.
There are various controls available but often people believe they do not work because they seem too slow to effectively kill swarms of hungry insects. This makes them frustrated and they reject the program.
“Locust calamities evoke hasty responses,” he said.
Integrated pest management is the best option for future control because it is environmentally friendly, protects crops and is less costly. Still, farmers need to build confidence in these concepts and to be trained to use new agents like biological controls.
Another problem is the availability of insecticides. If there are no insect problems, manufacturers stop producing those particular chemistries. When an emergency strikes, they are hard pressed to produce enough.
