Ethiopia starts aerial insecticide spray to fight locusts

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, July 4, 2005 (AP) — Ethiopia has began aerial spraying of insecticide to fight swarms of mature desert locusts that may lay eggs, leading to a massive invasion in the future, officials said Monday.

Government experts estimated the locust infestation density was around 300,000 locusts a hectare in the worst hit areas along the northern border regions with Sudan and Eritrea.

Villagers reported seeing locust clouds 20 hectares wide, said Fikre Markos, a locust expert for the ministry of agriculture.

The mature locusts aren’t eating that much. They are mainly looking for a place to lay eggs, officials with the Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said last month.

Locusts resemble flying grasshoppers and eat their weight – about 2 grams – in crops every day. Swarms can number in the billions and travel 200 kilometers a day, according to the U.N. agency.

“In a country already facing serious food shortages that translates into a lot of damage to livestock, grazing areas and food crops in the field,” said Peter Odiyo, head of the Desert Locust Control Organization of East Africa.

Last year, a wave of locusts devastated crops and pastures in several western African countries, causing a famine that affected millions across Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Algeria and Morocco.