The danger of locust swarms has passed for now. For five months from March, hundreds of field teams were deployed in India and Pakistan to kill locusts that swarmed in several provinces in the two countries.
The situation seems to be easing now. “The desert locust situation continues to improve in southwest Asia,” the Food and Agriculture Organization said in its latest update. Locusts destroyed crops in large parts of India and Pakistan from March to July. Experts have warned that such outbreaks can become increasingly frequent in the future.
Once locusts start to breed and swarm, there is very little option but to spray large amounts of insecticides to control the outbreak.
The pesticides that kill locusts have toxic effects on the environment and human health as well. There is also a potential for harm to local ecologies and signature species and friendly pollinators,…
