Food Security

* Locust - Large, mainly tropical grasshopper with srong power to fly large distance. Most devastating is Desert Locust mostly active btwn June & July.

Locusts have a high capacity to multiply, form groups, migrate over (150KM), if condition favourable then can rapidly reproduce 20 folds in 3 months. 

Threat to Vegetation - Adult : 2 Gm vegetation/Day, Small swarms - food = 35000 people /Day. If infestations are not detected and controlled, devastating plagues can develop. 

Measures - destroying egg masses laid by invading swarms, digging trenches to trap nymphs, using hopperdozers, incecticides. FAO informs countries going to have danger.

4 species in india from pakistan - Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria), Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), Bombay Locust ( Nomadacris succincta) and Tree locust (Anacridium sp.)