Locust article (!) from The Times (of London, England).
TUESDAY JUNE 19 2001
Locust army marches on its stomach
FROM GILES WHITTELL IN MOSCOW AND OLIVER AUGUST IN BEIJING
PLAGUES of locusts are devastating crops from Central Asia to the
American Midwest, sending farmers to the book of Exodus for
salvation.
Not since the Egyptians incurred the wrath of God have so many
locusts had their day. A billion-strong army is on the move, stretching
far beyond the more normal swarming grounds of Africa and the
Middle East and threatening central Eurasia’s arable land in a pincer
movement from each end of the Caspian Sea.
In China, hundreds of thousands of ducks are being flown to the
northwest where locusts are taking over vast dried-out grasslands —
in the worst affected areas of Xinjiang province up to 10,000 inhabit
one square metre.
The ducks are trained by government handlers to feed on the locusts
— they can reportedly eat a pound of them a day — and are then
flown to the afflicted region. The Government says it is more
environmentally friendly than using planes to spray pesticides.
Southern Russia’s worst plague of locusts in 40 years is meanwhile
advancing north by several miles a day and will start spreading ten
times faster if not contained within a week, officials have said.
Yesterday the swarm was confined to a 170,000-acre swath of
farmland in Dagestan near the Caspian Sea — an area about twice the
size of the Isle of Wight — but it had destroyed 30,000 acres of
wheat and was eating everything in its path, making the situation
critical, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry in Moscow.
The insects have hopped and walked inland from the Kuma River
estuary like grasshoppers. But experts called to the scene said that
they would grow wings within a week, if allowed to, and would then
be able to fly up to 30 miles a day.
In America, too, an agricultural emergency has been declared in Utah,
where the “Mormon crickets” have so far caused $25 million of
damage to crops.
Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. |
