Locusts plague Madagascar
It looked like something from a biblical story, in Madagascar which is an island country off the coast of Southeast Africa experienced a plague like setting. Estimated in the billions, the area was filled with locusts. This presents a threat to the area and people there, residents are at risk for food shortages.
Some people there have actually caught locusts with the intention of eating them as a last resort. (However, they are eaten with chocolate in parts of the world as a delicacy) (Some farmers also use them to feed pigs with) These insects are grasshoppers which have short feelers and antennae, hearing organs located on the rear part of their body.
Being winged adults they will fly in swarms, they inevitability are carried away from the wind reaching as far as hundreds of miles from their breeding grounds. Make no mistake as these insects do rather incredible damage which can occur on nearly each continent. Locusts can eat up to their own body weight every day.
Madagascar’s population reaches near 23 million people. It is also the world’s 47 The locusts have now been a problem for a third year in a row for residents of these regions. These insects are on their annual migration route. Back in 2012, the government decided to treat over a million hectares of farmland with pesticides, however the locusts continue to multiply.
The United Nations (FAO) launched this pesticide campaign. After many fields which were wiped out, this has prompted fears of food shortages. There are estimated around 13 million people who are threatened by this disaster. With the sudden heat waves in the Central Highlands region, waves of locusts were brought towards the country’s capital of Antananarivo.
