Swarm of Locusts has been spotted again in the UAE
In the past few days, there have been movements of adult groups and swarms in the UAE, Oman and India.
*The video was taken between Jabel Dhanna and Abu Dhabi.
Dubai, Fujairah and Abu Dhabi has been visited by the Swarm of Locusts, however as showing in the video the Swarm of Locusts impress by it’s size.
Update from the Locusts Watch Website: http://www.fao.org/ag/locusts/en/info/info/index.html
• Several immature adult groups moved from the northern interior near to the UAE border to the north coast where they are expected to move along the coast to Ras Al Hadd before crossing to southeast Pakistan. Other groups moved from the interior breeding areas to Dubai. Control operations are underway.
What are locusts?
Locusts have been feared and revered throughout history. Related to grasshoppers, these insects form enormous swarms that spread across regions, devouring crops and leaving serious agricultural damage in their wake.
Plagues of locusts have devastated societies since the Pharaohs led ancient Egypt, and they still wreak havoc today.
Behavior and life cycle
Locusts look like ordinary grasshoppers—most notably, they both have big hind legs that help them hop or jump. They sometimes share the solitary lifestyle of a grasshopper, too.
However, locust behavior can be something else entirely.
During dry spells, solitary locusts are forced together in the patchy areas of land with remaining vegetation.
This sudden crowding releases serotonin in their central nervous systems that makes locusts more sociable and promotes rapid movements and more varied appetite.
When rains return—producing moist soil and abundant green plants—those environmental conditions create a perfect storm: Locusts begin to produce rapidly and become even more crowded together.
In these circumstances, they shift completely from their solitary lifestyle to a group lifestyle in what’s called the gregarious phase. Locusts can even change color and body shape when they move into this phase. Their endurance increases and even their brains get larger.
Locusts can become gregarious at any point in their lifecycle. On hatching, a locust emerges wingless as a nonflying nymph, which can be either solitary or gregarious.
A nymph can also change between behavior phases before becoming a flying adult after 24 to 95 days.
Swarming
Locust swarms are typically in motion and can cover vast distances—some species may travel 81 miles or more a day.
They can stay in the air for long periods, regularly taking nonstop trips across the Red Sea. In 1954, a swarm flew from northwest Africa to Great Britain, while in 1988, another made the lengthy trek from West Africa to the Caribbean, a trip of more than 3,100 miles in just 10 days.
Locust swarms devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage, which can lead to famine and starvation.
Locusts occur in many parts of the world, but today locusts are most destructive in subsistence farming regions of Africa.
