On: “Unprecedented” locust invasion threatens crops in East Africa

[jbotz]

"The swarms increase in size twentyfold with each successive generation and could reach India by June."

India? Am I missing something or is this is an error in the text?

[iamalocust → jbotz]

No this is not an error. The desert locusts Wikipedia says the locusts can fly 100km a day. June is four months away so that's plenty of time.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_locust

[brianprovost → jbotz]

Looks like they're currently in Ethiopia (NE Africa) so India seems correct.

Looks like they rarely fly over water though: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1626356/

[sp332 → jbotz]

At 150 kilometers per day, they could cover the 3,500 km between Egypt and India in 20 days. Of course they're not covering that much distance every day, but they can jump between distant sources of food very quickly, so smaller gaps between crops or across deserts won't stop them.

[baybal2 → jbotz]

There was a horrendous locust swarms few months ago in Punjab already before the winter.

The same megaswarm was in Saudi Arabia a year ago.

It seems that the swarm has since split, with one swarm going back to Africa

[celim307 → baybal2]

Getting real 40k Tyranid vibes

[onetimemanytime → jbotz]

apparently they can move 90 MILES a day. I guess if they have food and no predators they can move and take over.

[Balero → onetimemanytime]

Having predators isn't an issue. There will be plenty, just there are so many locusts. So many that even after all the predators are filled to bursting, there won't be a noticeable drop in the numbers.

[the8472 → Balero]

Fungi might be able to replicate fast enough.

[ropiwqefjnpoa → jbotz]

At 150km a day, seems possible.

[wozer → jbotz]

Or maybe they decide to go to Europe?