Annoying Desert Locust

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

The Desert Locust is a dangerous polyphagous pest, most often found in subtropical and tropical regions of Africa, as well as in India and Asia Minor. Sometimes it can be found on the American continent. And although this pest practically does not occur on the territory of the CIS, sometimes it can fly into our lands (with especially massive reproduction) from Afghanistan and Iran. The larvae of the voracious desert locust, just like the adults, are capable of damaging more than four hundred species of tree species and various herbaceous plants

Meet the pest

Desert Locust females grow in length from 51 to 58 mm, and males from 46 to 56 mm. All pests are endowed with long, colorless wings with elytra decorated with dark spots, lateral keels on their front backs are absent, and the front chest is endowed with bizarre conical tubercles. Winged individuals of annoying parasites are colored yellowish-greenish, solitary locusts are usually green, and sexually mature representatives are lemon-yellow.

The egg-pods of the Desert Locust are approximately 12 - 14 mm long. All capsules are rather loose, endowed with thin walls and look like a frothy and rather slightly viscous cone-shaped mass. Eggs of pests have an elongated-oval shape, and their larvae are always imago-like. The size of the larvae varies depending on their ages: the length of the first instar is from 8 to 11 mm, the second instar is from 12 to 15.5 mm, the third instar larvae usually reach a size of 24-26 mm, the fourth instar is about 33 mm, and parasites that have reached the fifth age grow up to 50 mm.

The Desert Locust hibernates already in adult form. For its successful and full-fledged development, high humidity is required. And eggs are also laid by females in moist soil. Each pod can contain from 30 to 140 eggs, and on average - from 50 to 80. Egg development takes place over 13 - 17 days, without diapause. In Russia, as well as in a number of CIS countries, eggs laid by the gluttonous desert locust often die in the autumn-winter period. Throughout the year, the Desert Locust has time to develop in four generations, two of which are winter and two are summer. In years with heavy rainfall, the number of this pest is especially high.

Desert locusts can easily fly over 1200 km per day, and a swarm of pests can easily occupy an area of seventy to eighty kilometers. These polyphagous parasites fly only in the daytime, and with the onset of night they go to rest. It is noteworthy that the Desert Locust is characterized by massive cyclical reproduction. And the amount of food she eats per day is often equal to her own weight.

How to fight

Digging up areas will help get rid of a solid part of the Desert Locust larvae, but it is not possible to completely defeat the enemy using this method.

The vegetation against the Desert Locust is treated with attractants with various insecticides. However, chemical methods should be used to control locusts with extreme caution, as they can seriously harm the crops grown. The poison bait method is also widely used in the fight against the Desert Locust. Usually such baits are made from wheat bran impregnated with all kinds of chemicals. The advantage of this method is that it is much less hazardous compared to spraying.

Unfortunately, the desert locust quickly develops immunity to various types of poison, and there are currently no more progressive and effective ways to combat it. And it is not at all possible to prevent the invasion of these parasites, the maximum that can be done is to somewhat reduce the negative impact of its presence in the areas.