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Desert Locust

During plague years, desert locusts can cause widespread damage to crops, as they are highly mobile and feed on large quantities of any kind of green vegetation, including crops, pasture, and fodder. A typical swarm can be made up of 150 million locusts per square kilometre (390,000,000 per square mile) and fly in the direction of the prevailing wind, up to 150 kilometres (93 mi) in one day. Even a very small, 1-square-kilometre (0.39 sq mi) locust swarm can eat the same amount of food in a day as about 35,000 people.

At present, the primary method of controlling desert locust infestations is with insecticides applied in small, concentrated doses by vehicle-mounted and aerial sprayers at ultra-low volume rates of application. The insecticide is acquired by the insect directly, meaning that control must be precise. Control is undertaken by government agencies in locust-affected countries or by specialized regional aerial organizations such as the Desert Locust Control Organization for East Africa (DLCO-EA).