JEDDAH, 22 November 2004 — Saudi Arabia is bracing for a horde of unwelcome visitors to the Kingdom in the next few days as swarms of hungry locusts are expected to appear along the Red Sea coastline.
“We have been following the locust movement since before Ramadan when they first appeared in Africa and dispatched surveillance teams to monitor any appearance of them,” said Ahmed Al-Harbi of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Center for Combating Locusts in the Makkah region.
No arrivals have been reported yet, but they are expected within the next few days. “It is difficult to estimate the size of the locust swarm that might make it across the sea or the damage it can cause until it actually arrives,” Al-Harbi told Arab News.
“But we have made all the necessary preparations to prevent their spread — or at least decrease it as soon as they arrive.”
Crop-dusting teams are standing ready near agricultural areas to deal the hungry invaders a deadly blow. “The most damage is done to the farms, and we hope that with spraying we can prevent them from reaching the cities,” Al-Harbi said.
Although there is no evidence that suggests that locusts spread diseases, Al-Harbi warns that misapplication of the pesticides might cause some health and environmental problems.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) encourages that control operations follow accepted standard practices that minimize health and environmental side-effects. The Center for Combating Locusts has not launched an awareness campaign yet, but media reports on the arrival of the African horde already has prompted the concern of farmers.
“We saw the locusts on Egyptian TV and know it’s only a matter of time before they arrive here, so we bought pesticides and other tools to combat them,” a farmer in Madinah said.
Most farmers in Madinah try first to smoke the locusts out by lighting fires and burning tires near their farms and let the wind do the rest. It is a cheap and relatively effective method but not as effective as spraying. “The smoke will not harm our crop unlike the pesticides, but when it becomes necessary, of course we have to spray because it’s going to be damaged anyway,” said Eyad Al-Jihani, a local farmer.
Others hire laborers to shoo the crop chompers round the clock, but that is useless with a big swarm. “I have a palm farm, and I’m not very concerned because the leaves are not easily digested by the locusts and the season for dates is already over,” Al-Jihani told Arab News.
There are many large, well-known farms in Madinah with all kinds of crops that residents depend on for their livelihood. Some residents might try to take advantage of the situation and try to capture locusts and sell them in sacks as food for the people who enjoy eating them. Officials are warning against eating this because they may be sprayed with pesticides that can cause health problems.
“Most of our produce are not affected by the locusts because it is from other regions in the Kingdom,” said Ali Allulu, a local vegetable merchant. “But crops grown in the Madinah area and around it are affected.”
The locusts may be a problem to deal with, but it’s a problem that comes up from time to time. “Twenty-five years ago when we were invaded by a large locust swarm it ate everything — including our palm trees,” Allulu said. “Our methods then were very primitive in combating them, but now the Ministry of Agriculture is using the latest methods. They should be very effective.”
