Locust Outbreak Guide

In Australia, locusts are controlled using an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) system that aims to find and rapidly treat most gregarious locust populations. Many outbreaks have significant breeding in the arid interior of Australia during summer and treatments begin in the interior, to keep locust invasions of the agricultural zone to manageable levels. This preventive control program relies on IPM: moderately accurate forecasting and rapid response survey, followed by treatments of bands and swarms with a range of proven readily available products. IPM begins with a Decision Support System that uses data on weather and previous locust distributions to model locust development and possible migrations, so as to provide moderately accurate forecasts as to when and where locusts are likely to be present. When locusts are reported or forecast as likely to be in a region, surveys are conducted to locate any infestations and if bands or swarms are found, they are rapidly treated using a variety of techniques. Bands are commonly visible from an aircraft flying overhead and when bands are seen, the areas containing bands are normally treated using “barrier” treatments of fipronil, where synthetic insecticide is applied every few hundred meters. Swarms are located by helicopter and sprayed, using fast-acting organophosphorous compounds like fenitrothion. But an increasingly important part of IPM in Australia is having an environmentally friendly option. Locusts can then be treated even if they are found where synthetic insecticides cannot be used such as near waterways, where there are rare and endangered species, or on organically managed properties. It was the switch to produce organic beef for Japan by a number of properties in locust breeding areas in the interior that was an initial driver for the development of an alternative to synthetic pesticides for locust control in Australia. The result of an intensive research and development program was the mycopesticide Green Guard, which has as its active ingredient the FI-985 isolate of the fungus Metarhizium anisoplae var.acridum. Green Guard has played an important part in the IPM of locusts and grasshoppers in Australia, including large-scale control operations, with more than 100,000 ha treated since operational use began in 2000.However, while Green Guard plays an important part in the IPM of locusts and grasshoppers, it still accounts for only about 10% of the area treated. Green Guard costs more than synthetic insecticides and locust and grasshopper mortality is delayed when temperatures are mild. An additional factor limiting its use is a lack of biological control products for most other pests, so that synthetic insecticides are still used in most cropping systems, resulting in residues being present in most products and in most environments. As restrictions on synthetic pesticides generally increase and biological alternatives become more available, it is expected that Green Guard use should expand to become an increasingly important component of locust and grasshopper IPM.

Dealing with crisis situations involves significant collaborative decision-making to recover lives and preserve properties. In order to reach timely and appropriate decisions, crisis response organizations need to rapidly obtain an accurate situation awareness of the crisis context. A process by which they need to gather, access, and exchange near real-time information about the events circumstances throughout the entire crisis life cycle. Such activities imply a huge participation of collaborating organizations and goes even beyond their internal borders to reach the entire crisis-stricken community. Recent crisis and disaster situations have demonstrated the crucial role citizens can and must play in responding to such events. The growing development of advanced technologies has open the door for large public to be a key factor in making decisions and conducting guided response actions. We propose in this paper a comprehensive approach that integrates crisis crowdsourcing tasks and techniques to crisis decision-making activities. To demonstrate its relevance, we present a study of crisis scenario based on the context of Desert Locust Plague Survey and Control in the Algerian National Institute of Plant Protection (INPV).

The first sign of a desert locust episode (a desert locust event involving gregarious populations) is when transient-phase and fully gregarious locusts occur in loose groups and then coalesce into dense bands and swarms on a local scale. Such “outbreaks” can be isolated, or multiple outbreaks can occur simultaneously within a region or multiple regions. Outbreaks might subside without human intervention if conditions become unfavorable, but outbreaks can also enlarge, spreading to other localities. When swarms move beyond breeding areas to other regions, the overall situation exceeds a hazily demarcated threshold from “outbreak” to “upsurge.” Outbreaks and upsurges can be short (a few months) or can persist for years.

Plagues of the desert locust are occurring, on average, one year in every six. Highly mobile swarms may then threaten a vast territory streching from Mauritania to India, and Turkmenistan to Tanzania. In the last ten years two major upsurges have occurred. Development agencies including the World Bank have assisted the control efforts of affected countries; financial assistance totaled some US$383 million over this period. This paper highlights a number of issues associated with these operations. One key question concerns the extent to which the rationale for control is based on a realistic assessment of the risks posed to agricultural production and livelihoods. At the same time, it appears that a lack of preparedness on the part of all major actors is contributing to the 'emergency' status of control operations. When operations are undertaken it is not clear that an effective technical strategy currently exists, or is being employed, given logistical, institutional and resource constraints. This is contribuitng to inefficiencies and increased environmental costs. Moreover, sustainable capacity is not being developed in most of the affected countries and donor dependence is high.

Locusts and grasshoppers are among the most dangerous agricultural pests. Their control is critical to food security worldwide and often requires governmental or international involvement. Control of pests such as insects has evolved from hand slaps to fly swatters, to chemical insecticides, electric bug traps, glue covered strips, and other devices. Often an attractant, such as ultraviolet light, scent or edible bait, is used to lure insects or rodents into the trap. In one common trap, ultraviolet light attracts insects onto an electrified grid which then electrocutes the insects. This device, however, sparks loudly, spatters debris, and is dangerous to humans. Mechanical traps also have drawbacks, for example, the need to lure the pest into a small space. Chemical pesticides can poison non-target species and pollute the environment. The biological pesticide has a high cost, and has several days delay between spraying and killing locusts. Energy devices such as lasers have been proposed for use against insect pests, against flying swarms of locusts. The latter method recognizes that destroying the insects completely would require too much energy, and therefore targets a specific organ structure, such as wings or sensory organs, to render the insects unable to fly. Even so, the energies described are too large for practical use using the method suggested. Also, the cost of the lasers is quite high. To explore new physical means in controlling locusts, the LED-device was used to evaluate the effect of LED light on locusts. The results indicated that the locusts were trapped (near 100 %), when the color of light emitted from LED is blue, green, yellow, red mixed in a special order. The application of the obtained algorithm and the duration of activation of light-emitting diodes allowed to increase the number of caught individuals up to 5678 pieces.

FAO, 2014.

Locusts and grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) are among the most dangerous agricultural pests. Their control is critical to food security worldwide and often requires governmental or international involvement. Although locust and grasshopper outbreaks are now better controlled and often shorter in duration and reduced in extent, large outbreaks, often promoted by climate change, continue to occur in many parts of the world. While some locust and grasshopper control systems are still curative, the recognition of the damage these pests can cause and the socioeconomic consequences of locust and grasshopper outbreaks have led to an increasing paradigm shift from crop protection to preventive management. Effective preventive management strategy relies on an improved knowledge of the pest biology and ecology and more efficient monitoring and control techniques.

It is crucial to improve application techniques when controlling locust outbreaks in developing countries. Focusing on how to get the most from treatments, while minimising adverse effects, this title describes in detail topics such as the basic principles for conducting spraying operations, spraying equipment and specific locust techniques. Numerous tables, diagrams and photos make this an easy-to-follow guidebook and a valuable resource for anyone involved in locust control.

The desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria Forskal) has caused great losses to agriculture in Africa, the Middle East and South West Asia. Their annual migrations take them downwind where winter, spring and summer rains fall for breeding. During the period 1863 to 1962 there were ten plagues in India and 18 upsurges from 1963 to 2012. Traditional desert locust control methods were used which were not successful. Newer technologies in the form of pesticides, ULV spraying, GPS, GIS tools, Satellite data imagery, RAMSES and elocust2 with the computers have been introduced for quick data management and analysis for planning desert locust control. The impact of newer technologies for locust control management in India for last 50 years has been successful. The South West Asia and the Middle East countries have taken responsibility for monitoring the breeding grounds and applying plague prevention strategy for desert locust control in the outbreak areas and by exchanging desert locust infestation information through FAO. The early prevention strategy for desert locust control has achieved its original objective of preventing damage to major agricultural zones in invasion area and helps protect the crops of small farmers as well as grazing grounds for the livestock.

Little progress has been made to improve knowledge about the brown locust, a super-herbivore along with which the Karoo evolved, says Dr Joh R Henschel, Arid Lands Node, South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), and Centre for Environmental Management, the University of the Free State.

While locust control is necessary to avoid the high cost of locust damage to agriculture, land managers are increasingly seeking to minimize the environmental impact of pesticide spray treatments used. The comparative impacts of different locust control treatments on non-target arid zone fauna are rarely studied in the field, leading to uncertainty as to which treatments represent the lowest hazard to the sprayed ecosystems. A phenyl pyrazole pesticide, fipronil, and a fungal biopesticide, Metarhizium acridum (Green Guard®) were applied aerially in either a barrier or blanket ULV treatment at replicated sites which mimicked the techniques employed for locust control operations in Australia. Effects of the two pesticide treatments were compared in the absence of dense locust populations. We measured the abundance and community composition of non-target arid-zone arthropods at control and treatment sites before and after pesticide applications using a large field-based pitfall trapping experiment. Arthropod community composition was not significantly affected over time by either locust control treatment. However, significant short-term times×treatment interactions were found for 6 of 11 most common taxa at family or higher taxonomic level (collembolans, acarians, coleopterans, psocopterans, gryllids, and dipterans). We also compared unsprayed and sprayed areas within fipronil and Metarhizium treatment sites, and found 2 of the 10 most common ant species (Formicidae: Rhytidoponera mayri and Iridomyrmex purpureus) showed significant time×treatment interactions for fipronil but none for Metarhizium, indicating that ants were more severely affected by fipronil within sites than between the three treatments. One year post-treatment, significant time×treatment interactions persisted for only two taxa (dipterans and blattodeans) at Metarhizium treatments, indicating full recovery of most taxa. The suppression of the ant R. mayri in fipronil sprayed areas within treatment sites persisted after one year, while I. purpureus had fully recovered. Relative arthropod abundance and community assemblage changed over time in control and treatment sites, probably reflecting changes in patterns of local rainfall over the study period. Most of the statistically significant treatment effects recorded for different taxa in our study were not long lasting, suggesting that the two locust control methods studied represent a relatively low and transient hazard to most arthropod taxa. The pronounced temporal variation in arthropod abundance across all sites indicated that climate and environmental factors are likely to be stronger drivers of arid zone arthropod abundance and community structure than single aerial applications of low-dose aerial pesticide treatments used to control locusts in arid and semi-arid regions of Australia.

The most hazardous pest species in the semi-desert zone with regard to their abundance and the level of harmfulness are the Asiatic (migratory) locust (Locusta migratoria L.) and the Italian locust (Calliptamus italicus L.). The objectives of the research which was carried out in the semi-desert zone include agroecological monitoring of the species composition, phenology, abundance and harmfulness of locusts, as well as the selection of optimal insecticides for locust control. The research provided data on the phenology, abundance and harmfulness of the Asiatic locust and the Italian locust in the semi-desert territories of the West Kazakhstan Region. The research also determined the biological efficiency of the modern insecticides in locust control. The highest biological efficiency was observed when using the insecticides Herold – 98.2% and Tanrek – 97.7%. When using the insecticide Decis-extra the larval mortality amounted to 94.8%.