Locust little devils in disguise!

Bodoland G.K: Locust which is rising his vicious head around the world by leaving his trial of destruction where it go. Here are the some of the facts, that you should know:-

1. Locusts are a collection of certain species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstances they become more abundant and change their behaviour and habits, becoming gregarious.

2. When Food runs out, they become cannibal.

3. Once developed, a locust plague is almost impossible to stop or control. Control measures include destroying egg masses laid by invading swarms, digging trenches to trap nymphs, using hopperdozers (wheeled screens that cause locusts to fall into troughs containing water and kerosene), using insecticidal baits, and applying insecticides to both swarms and breeding grounds from aircraft.

4. Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day, so a swarm of such size would eat 423 million pounds of plants every day. To put it into context, a swarm the size of Paris can eat the same amount of food in one day as half the population of France.

5. A desert locust lives a total of about three to five months. This is variable and depends mostly on weather and ecological conditions. The life cycle of a desert locust comprises of three stages - egg, hopper, and adult. Eggs hatch in about two weeks (the range is 10-65 days), hoppers develop in five to six stages over a period of about 30-40 days, and adults mature in about three weeks to nine months but more frequently from two to four months.

Information Sources:

1. Wikipedia

2. National Geographic

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica

4. National Geographic

5. IndiaTv

[ These facts are put together by The Bodo Tribe 18 (Team) from different sources ]