Desert locusts typically lead solitary lives until something—like intense rainfall—triggers them to swarm in vast numbers, often with devastating consequences. This migratory pest can reach plague ...

Desert locusts can shift from harmless, solitary insects into continent-spanning swarms capable of covering 40 miles, but the ...

Desert locust swarms can stretch 40 miles wide and contain billions of insects. When they descend on farmland, crops vanish within hours. But what triggers these enormous swarms in the first place?

USDA's Agricultural Research Service has released the first high-quality genome of the desert locust, which researchers hope will help reduce dependence on pesticides to control the pest. "Having a ...

Male locusts have long been observed shielding mates from other males. Researchers say this behavior may also protect the females from desert temperatures. By Gennaro Tomma It may seem like a hopeless ...

In collaboration with the Mauritanian National Center for Desert Locust Control, JIRCAS has chronicled the daytime egg-laying behavior of adult desert locusts (simply referred to here as locusts) in a ...

In 2019 and 2020, desert locusts once again plagued parts of East Africa and huge areas as far as India and Pakistan through the Arabian Peninsula, in an infestation that was described as the worst in ...

Kenya and Ethiopia sprayed millions of hectares of cropland and pastures with chemical pesticides in response to massive locust swarms that emerged between 2019 and 2021. In Ethiopia, around 76 ...

Desert locusts are breeding in Ethiopia’s northern regions unhindered due to ongoing conflict, threatening food production in other parts of the vast nation and in neighboring Eritrea, according the ...

The photos are truly the stuff of nightmares: Swarms of desert locusts blocking out the sun, blanketing fields, and devouring crops in East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. It’s the worst ...

This migratory pest can reach plague proportions, and a swarm covering one square kilometre can consume enough food in one day to feed 35,000 people. Desert locusts typically lead solitary lives until ...