[Edwina Lee (OP)]

Disaster upon disaster. We had continental scale wild fires in Australia, covid-19 pandemic, and now huge locust swarms are advancing through the middle-east.

I read a news article about using ducks to fight the swarms last year, but I've heard no follow up news.

The locust infestationmap:- http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/common/ecg/75/en/200507globalE.jpg

FAO situation update 2020-05-13 http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/index.html

Isn't it amazing that the swarms can leap across the Persian Gulf!

And if ducks can be used to eat up the locusts, why not use chicks too?

[alancalverd]

Not enough ducks or chicks, quite simply.

I had the idea of harvesting wild locusts and processing them dried, frozen or canned for human and animal feed and fuel, but haven't had the time or money to develop it yet. One day....

The average width of the Gulf is about 100 miles, down to 35 miles in the Strait of Hormuz. Locusts fly downwind at up to 20 mph and 1500 ft, where the wind is anything up to 30 mph before it gets turbulent, so they can easily cross most of the Gulf in a few hours. 

[Edwina Lee (OP)]

When a swarm is not destroyed, the next generation multiplies by 20 times!
I don't understand why the technology to spray them is so primitive.
2020-06-25 BBC Kenya
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-53170894/preventing-a-plague-fighting-kenya-s-locusts
2020-05-24 BBC India
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-india-52807184/locust-swarms-destroy-crops-across-india

[Bored chemist]

I don't understand why the technology to spray them is so primitive.

Poverty.

[alancalverd]

Sadly, hand spraying seems to be the least inefficient process available. UNFAO has supported aerial spraying over the years but it is fraught with difficulties.

To spray insecticide over crop you need a small plane that can fly low and slow and turn tightly – usually something like a Piper Pawnee or Cessna Stationair with a big engine to haul half a ton of chemicals. This works fine for planned spraying but you need a reasonable airstrip within about 30 miles of the target, and bowsers of fuel and insecticide: locust swarms aren’t all that cooperative in their choice of feeding station.

Spraying an airborne swarm is much more difficult and less efficient, and you need to avoid spraying over human and animal habitats.

You might be able to track and spray a swarm migrating over desert or sea, using a hefty long-range tanker, but now we are talking about a major capital item and a big crew that may only be used once a decade, so it is best contracted to the military, who do that kind of thing. Except that the job will probably involve flying low through airspace that belongs to hostile, corrupt politicians (there being no other sort) and their sworn enemy fanatics. Sucking a few locusts into the engines is unpleasant, but a rocket can really spoil your day. 

[Monox D. I-Fly]

Can we use a giant net with very small holes to trap those?

[alancalverd]

A desert locust swarm can be 460 square miles in size and pack between 40 and 80 million locusts into less than half a square mile. Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day.

So you need to spread a net 21 miles in each direction, capable of carrying 2000 tons of insects. Even by fishery standards, that's quite a haul.  The net itself will weigh about 100 tons. Current loadcarrying drones can manage 0.1 ton, and coordinating 1000 of them will make the Battle of Britain look like Sunday in the park with your local aeromodellers.   

[Petrochemicals]

Ploughing seem s the most effective combative  method.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/grasshoppers-bring-ruin-to-midwest

Bit late to the party

https://www.express.co.uk/news/weird/1256940/end-world-bible-passage-chronicles-coronavirus-locust-plague-wildfires-spt

Plus

https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=79754.0

[alancalverd]

Ploughing is marginally productive as it buries organic matter (locust bodies) that may eventually rot into fertiliser, but it takes a lot of energy, is a fairly slow process, and you lose the immediate food value of the locusts as well as the crop. Harvesting the locusts is quicker and gives you an immediate useful yield of locust meat.