The mature insects can then breed and reproduce, creating more than 150 times their original number with each breeding cycle. Some swarms are significantly larger than many modern cities so the insects in a single swarm can easily number in the tens, or even hundreds of billions and can consume up to 300 million pounds of crops and vegetative matter in a single day. A locust consumes its own weight in vegetation each day and swarms comprise about 80 million insects per hectare. The large numbers of insects that hatch form and travel in bands of ‘hoppers’ while in their immature, flightless stage until they reach maturity, when they can then travel up to 150 kilometers each day with their new-found ability to fly. The massive swarms of desert locusts result from breeding that occurred after unusually wet and cooler then usual weather patterns, including cyclones over the Arabian Desert. South African-based BAC Helicopters has been actively involved in the battle in Kenya, where the situation is the worst in seventy years, as Leigh Neil reports. The scale of the plague is almost beyond comprehension and massive resources are required to combat the menace it presents. During 2020 Yemen, East Africa and south Asia are experiencing the worst infestation of swarming desert locusts in a quarter of a century.
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