A Service of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee SWG on Preparedness
you are in the hazard page for:
Locust
Relevant Links
- European Floods Portal
- European Severe Weather Database
- Europe Meteo Alarm
- Natural Hazards Center | University of Colorado at Boulder
- TRMM
- Agriculture Online Visualization and Analysis System (AOVAS)
- Dartmouth Flood Observatory
- PreventionWeb.net
- RSOE EDIS - Emergency and Disaster Information Service
- Pacific Disaster Center
- Global Risk Data Platform
- Columbia University: Center For Hazards & Risk Research
- GDACS
- Global Flood Map | World Wide Map of Potential Flooding
- Interactive Flood Maps
This update was published the 15 May 2013
Locust information have been extracted from FAO Locust Watch
Hopper bands form in Israel for the first time in 50 years
Related countries: Algeria Egypt Eritrea Israel Morocco Saudi Arabia Sudan
As a result of egg-laying in mid-March and low temperatures, hatching occurred from mid-April onwards in the western Negev Desert of Israel and in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt where hoppers are now forming groups and bands in both areas. In Israel, survey and control operations are in progress by ground and air to find and treat as many hopper infestations as possible before they become adults at the end of May. The new adults may form small groups and swarms that could threaten agriculture crops. The last time breeding occurred and hopper bands formed in Israel was more than 50 years ago in April 1961. In Egypt, insecurity is hampering survey and control operations in the Sinai. Breeding has been detected in a few places but hopper groups and bands may be forming in other areas that are inaccessible in central and southern Sinai. Any adult groups and swarms that form in either country are likely to move south during June to the summer breeding areas in the interior of central Sudan that extend from Darfur to western Eritrea. Elsewhere, breeding is in progress in northwest Saudi Arabia and control operations are underway. Nevertheless, there is concern that adult groups may move into the interior where good rains fell in April. Breeding is also in progress in northern Sudan where control operations continue against hopper bands that are forming along a 1,000 km stretch of the Nile Valley. New adults are expected to form groups and small swarms in May that could threaten agriculture crops. Smaller-scale breeding occurred near Lake Nasser in southern Egypt. In Northwest Africa, spring breeding is in progress in the northern Sahara of Algeria and, to a lesser extent, on the southern side of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Control operations have been undertaken in Algeria.