Locusts like damp conditions to lay eggs. Heavier rain than usual has caused a boom in the locust population. The swarms are devastating crops across East Africa and the Middle East, threatening the food supplies and livelihoods of millions of people.
Use of pesticides is the only way of controlling the locust outbreak, but current flight restrictions due to coronavirus are impeding supplies to the region.
these are beautiful paintings Jo, but as the others have said of such a terrible event.
Hello Anna, thank you – I know, it’s bad, and not over yet. They say the next generation are hatching now and will be ready to go on the rampage in May. We are lucky, eh? No locusts in Leeds…
Your paintings are exquisite, even though their subject is not.
Hi Claudia, thanks. It’s a bit strange to paint bad things, but the sight of them on the news fascinated me. Hope you are OK.
We are doing well here given the circumstances, very grateful for our situation and hoping for the best for others. I hope you are doing well too. I get that fascination you mention, your pictures evoked the same feeling – the randomness, the order, all mixed together in how these insects behave.
We have them across Australia too. Awful the devastation they cause. But have you ever seen the old film about how the town’s crops were saved from a locust plague by flocks of seagulls?
I just looked it up. The film is called The Miracle of the Seagulls (1938) and refers to the miraculous saving of the crops of early Mormon settlers in Utah! Obviously I missed the Mormon bit when I saw this film decades ago.
Hi Leonie, I have not seen that film! It sounds good, my brother is a film buff – I’ll see if he knows it. Hope you are keeping well.
Thanks for asking Jo, so far so good. Being retired from formal work is good practice for being at home. We do miss the coffee shops, but my god lots of odd jobs are getting done around the house and garden. Hope you are going well too.