currentsinbiology: Argentina Scrambles to Fight Biggest Plague of Locusts in 60 Years Farmers and fu

currentsinbiology:Argentina Scrambles to Fight Biggest Plague of Locusts in 60 YearsFarmers and fumigators in Argentina are running out of time as they scramble to control the country’s worst plague of locusts in more than half a century, officials warned on Monday.The provincial authorities and Senasa, the government’s agricultural inspection agency, have intensified their efforts to exterminate swarms of the insects in the dry forests of northern Argentina. But their attempts might not be enough to prevent the locusts from developing into a flying throng in the coming days — when they will then threaten to devour crops like sunflowers and cotton, and grasslands for cattle grazing.“It’s the worst explosion in the last 60 years,” Diego Quiroga, the agriculture agency’s chief of vegetative protection, said in a telephone interview. “It’s impossible to eradicate; the plague has already established itself. We’re just acting to make sure it’s the smallest it can be and does the least damage possible.”A swarm of locusts in September in the Lavalle area of Santiago del Estero Province, Argentina. Farmers last year reported seeing swarms that were four miles wide and two miles high.Credit: SENASA                    “The specter of locusts haunts Argentina’s farmers, who for almost 200 years have resorted to rustic methods like bonfires to drive away menacing swarms. A government program to combat locusts, set up in 1891 under President Carlos Pellegrini, is believed to be one of Argentina’s oldest agricultural policies.After years relatively free from locusts, farmers are again bracing themselves for the worst. Senasa has set up a hotline to report sightings of the insects. And in meetings this month to coordinate a response to the plague, officials in Argentina have been emphasizing the havoc locusts can wreak by digging out sepia-toned photographs of past plagues.Fumigators equipped with backpack sprayers intensified their efforts last week. They have extinguished pockets of young locusts, which cannot yet fly, only hop, in 66 locations in northern provinces of Argentina. The dry forests there are largely impenetrable, however, so it is unclear how many other pockets have gone undiscovered.”Wiki on locusts -- source link

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