22 July 2017

Desert Locust – Talea’a Valley

The Desert Locust Schistocerca gregaria situation was calm during early 2017 due to poor rainfall and ecological conditions throughout most of the spring breeding areas in northwest Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Low numbers of solitarious adults were present but small-scale breeding probably occurred in interior Saudi Arabia that may cause locust numbers to increase slightly. Numbers remain low in 2017 so finding one in the Talea’a Valley, near Abha in the southwest mountains of Saudi Arabia was a bit of a surprise. The desert locust can form plagues and threaten agricultural production in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia which it has done for for centuries. The livelihood of at least one-tenth of the world’s human population can be affected by this voracious insect. The desert locust is potentially the most dangerous of the locust pests because of the ability of swarms to fly rapidly across great distances.
Desert Locust