The Desert Locust: an international challenge

1990 ◽  
Vol 328 (1251) ◽  
pp. 525-538 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Cumulative Effect ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Desert Locust ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
The Past ◽  
Northwest Africa ◽  
The Caribbean

A new plague of the Desert Locust Schistocerca gregaria started in 1986; it developed quickly in 1987 in the Sahelian countries and reached northwest Africa at the end of 1987. It expanded in 1988 in north Africa, the Sahel, the Sudan, the Near East, southwest Asia, and in October 1988, swarms crossed the Atlantic to the Caribbean. The plague declined dramatically in the past quarter of 1988, and by March 1989 the plague was over. A study of the latest known upsurges provides more support to the theory that a build-up of locusts arises from initially low-density populations rather than from the persistence of undetected swarming populations. The decline of the recent plague was probably attributable to the cumulative effect of control operations combined with natural environmental factors. Prevention of new plagues of the Desert Locust will be much more difficult as the restriction on the use of dieldrin poses major technical, logistic and financial problems.

scholarly journals Desert Locust Schistocerca gregaria Forskål (Acrididae): Biology, Management and Strategies: A Review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dinesh Chandra Rajak ◽  
Jyoti Yadav
Keyword(s):  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Desert Locust ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Integrated Network ◽  
Control Techniques ◽  
Agrarian Crisis ◽  
And Control ◽  
Resource Deployment

Early 2020 witnessed the emergence of global agrarian crisis with the widespread burgeoning of destructive migratory pest, Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) in East Africa, Southwest Asia, Pakistan and India. Characterised by the ability to eat ravenously, breed exponentially and migrate rapidly; locust swarms has led to substantial agrarian disaster. The current official strategy is to control the upsurges to evade plague. Though it may seem attractive and efficient, it is sensible only if the numbers are relatively low. The socio-economic and environmental challenges posed by the unprecedented locust outbreak has prompt the scientists worldwide to emanate an effective preventive management strategies that rely on updated knowledge of pest biology, ecology and behaviour along with efficient monitoring, data management, analysis, forecasting, resource deployment and control techniques. In addition, the integrated network of field teams, decision makers, analysts, rural governing bodies and farmers potentially offers better compliance of pest management strategies.

Outbreaks and recession populations of the desert locust Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.)

1970 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Roffey ◽  
George Popov ◽  
C. F. Hemming
Keyword(s):  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Low Density ◽  
Desert Locust ◽  
New Evidence

New evidence on the nature of recession populations of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk.), and on the nature and role of its outbreaks is presented. It is shown that the hopper bands and swarms reported during the 1963–67 recession differed qualitatively and quantitatively from those characteristic of plague periods and were numerically much smaller than some low density non-swarming populations. Gregarisation frequently occurs in the latter and may be on a scale sufficient to give rise to an outbreak; in turn outbreaks may lead to plague upsurges.

scholarly journals Desert locust and its management in Nepal: a review

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Suraj Shrestha ◽  
Gaurav Thakur ◽  
Jayanti Gautam ◽  
Namoona Acharya ◽  
Meena Pandey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Schistocerca Gregaria ◽  
Feeding Habits ◽  
Desert Locust ◽  
Agricultural Pests ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Cultural Methods ◽  
Unique Character ◽  
Tools And Techniques ◽  
And Control

Locusts are among the most dangerous agricultural pests. They are a group of short horned grasshoppers belonging to Acrididae family and are hemimetabolous insects. This group of grasshoppers have a unique character of changing habits and behaviors when they aggregate in a group and this habit is catalyzed by different environmental factors. In the adult stage, gregarious locusts migrate from one place to another in a swarm. Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forksal), is one of those locusts which cause damage to different types of crop which fly in the direction of wind up to a distance of 150 km. Because of polyphagous feeding habits and swarming in a plague (large group of adults), this pest is considered as the hazardous migratory pest. These pests entered Nepal for the first time in 1962 and then in 1996. In 2020 the pest entered the country from India on three different dates 27th June and continued till 29th (5 districts), 12th July (1 district), and 16th July (2 districts). The swarms migrated to 53 districts and caused the considerable loss in agricultural and field crop in 1118 hectare. These pests are monitored on the basis of environmental factors and many tools and practices such as eLocust3, SMELLS (Soil Moisture for Desert Locust Early Survey), P-locust and SUPARCO Disaster Watch Desert Locust Situation Alert are being used. Their control is critical to food security. Many tools and techniques are integrated for prevention and management of these pests to minimize damage in the existing crops where they migrate. These are physical methods, cultural methods, use of botanicals, green muscle, PAN (phenylacetonitrile) and chemicals. Effective preventive management strategy relies on an improved knowledge of the pest biology, more efficient monitoring and control techniques.

History, Story, and Community: Representing the Past in Latin Christendom, 1050–1400

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles F. Briggs
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
The Past ◽  
Accelerated Growth

This chapter looks at Latin Christendom's evolution of historical writing, which had issued forth from a few, mostly monastic, centers, and eventually swelled into a substantial river fed by many and diverse tributaries. This expansionary trend in historiography was itself but one small manifestation of a protracted phase of accelerated growth in Europe, beginning in roughly the year 1000 and continuing until the early decades of the fourteenth century. The politically atomized, sparsely populated, and economically nonintegrated society that survived the inner turmoil attending the breakup of the Frankish Empire and the incursions of peoples from North Africa, the Eurasian Steppes, and Scandinavia during the ninth through early eleventh centuries, demonstrated a renewed vitality — spurred in part by the new political and economic conditions, as well as a period of improved climate.

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