Desert Locust - Locust Swarming

Locust Swarming

See also: Marching locusts

The migratory locust (Locusta migratoria) ranges from Europe to China, and even small swarms may cover several square miles, and weigh thousands of tons. Control by spreading poisoned food among the bands is very effective, but it is cheapest to spray concentrated insecticide solutions from aircraft over the insects or the vegetation on which they feed. They eat the equivalent of their own weight in a day, and, flying at night with the wind, may cover some 500 km/300 mi. The largest known swarm covered 1,036 km2/400 sq mi, comprising approximately 40 billion insects.

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Famous quotes containing the words locust and/or swarming:

    “Who knows what sort of seventeen-year locust will next come out of the ground?”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    “Many a time I have seen my mother leap up from the dinner table to engage the swarming flies with an improvised punkah, and heard her rejoice and give humble thanks simultaneously that Baltimore was not the sinkhole that Washington was.”
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)