Locusts descended upon East Africa in January. The next month, a swarm blanketed a huge Kenyan lakeshore, transforming the ground into buzzing, yellow fields. Now in May, the locust outbreak isn't nearly over. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations called the pestilence situation "extremely alarming in East Africa where it is an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods."
It's daunting to find and quell swarms of desert locusts — a voracious grasshopper species whose swarms can devour more food per day than 35,000 people — as the insects naturally inhabit remote regions over 6 million square miles in size. But locust experts are improving ways to predict where the swarms will go, to warn people of approaching outbreaks and to potentially spray the bugs with insecticides. Read more...
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