Desert Locust Bulletin 514 (5 August 2021)

Summer breeding imminent in NE Ethiopia & elsewhere

Spring breeding has ended in eastern Ethiopia and northwest Somalia where control operations continue to decline as they reduce the number and size of the springbred immature swarms. As anticipated, at least several swarms migrated to northeast Ethiopia where aboveaverage rains since mid-July allowed them to mature and probably lay eggs in the Afar Region and southern Djibouti.

Although this could not be confi rmed and very few swarms have been seen recently due to diffi culties in accessing the breeding areas, hatching and hopper band formation should be expected from early August onwards that could give rise to new swarms after late September. A few swarms may have also continued to the highlands in northern Ethiopia where they could reappear in adjacent areas of Sudan and Eritrea for breeding. In Yemen, a few swarms moved through the highlands and at least one swarm reached the interior where good rains that fell during July will allow at least one generation of summer breeding and the formation of small hopper bands. So far, local breeding is already in progress. Widespread, good rains also fell throughout the summer breeding areas in the northern Sahel between Mauritania and western Eritrea as well as along the IndoPakistan border. As few locust infestations are present in these areas, breeding will be on a small scale and locust numbers will only increase slightly

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations