By Jacqueline Howard
Updated.
February 08, 2020 15: 04:05
One African country has actually declared a nationwide emergency situation over the swarms. What’s the risk of Australia facing something comparable?
Think the flies and mozzies are bad at the moment? Envision remaining in East Africa today.
A massive desert locust pester has actually hit the region and is ravaging plant life and threatening food security and incomes on an extraordinary scale.
The locusts swarms are so dense, an Ethiopian Airlines plane was required off course in January when clouds of the bugs slammed into the engines, windscreen and nose.
Billions of locusts have swarmed throughout the east of the continent. In Kenya, one specific swarm alone is roughly 2,400 km 2 broad, which is estimated to be a minimum of 96 billion locusts.
A desert locust adult can consume approximately its weight in fresh food each day, (about 2 grams). A 1km 2– size swarm includes at least 40 million locusts, which consume the very same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people.