NEWS: Locusts Swarm Over Northern Africa

NPR
The life-cycle of the locust is truly remarkable. Locusts start off as ordinary green grasshoppers, who actually prefer to be alone. But if the young "hoppers" are crowded too close together, it triggers a change in their body and their behavior. They grow and shed their skins, eventually mutating into leaner, meaner locusts.



With food to eat and sufficient moisture, the mature locusts lay eggs in the soil -- and when the eggs hatch, there's a 400-fold increase in their numbers. The crowds turn into swarms that continue the cycle. In a few generations, the locust population can number in the billions and single swarms can stretch for miles. Each bug can eat its own weight in vegetation in a single day, and hundreds can pack into one square yard of ground.

In the past few years, the rains have been abundant in Senegal and other nations on Africa's West Coast. That's good news for farmers, but also a perfect breeding ground for locusts.

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