Time Capsule: The 2004 USAID Locust Response
Fifteen years ago this fall, USAID responded to a massive locust infestation that affected 24 countries, from Cape Verde in West Africa all the way to Israel.
“Just picture hundreds of thousands of these little creatures climbing on all the trees and plants. And when they fly off, there is no vegetation left. I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it myself. It gives you goosebumps.”
- Juan Piniella, USAID Locust Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART).
Locusts are one of the most devastating insect pests, eating their own weight in vegetation daily. They are able to travel about 100 miles a day following the trade winds, only stopping to roost at night in trees and fields. Within one square kilometer, you might find 80 million locusts roosting.
When the locusts land, they eat… and they don’t stop until all the vegetation around them is gone. That’s what happened in 2004 when USAID deployed an elite Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) to respond to a massive locust infestation that affected 24 countries, from Cape Verde in West Africa all the way to Israel.
“They eat a lot because its take a lot of energy for them to grow. They fly, they eat, they fly, they eat,” said Yene Belayneh, Ph.D., a Senior Technical Pests and Pesticides Advisor with USAID’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance. “These pests come and they hit you hard.”
Locust infestations destroy farms, displace people, and make dwindling resources scarce — which can lead to insecurity and fighting in communities.
Juan Piniella (above left) was one of two members of the USAID DART who worked with local Senegalese communities to help them track the locusts. His team followed the swarms and installed radios and antennas in cars and on roofs so that they could report the exact GPS coordinates of roosting locusts to pilots who were waiting on standby.
Aircraft, or “air tractors” as they were called, were then deployed to release pesticide over the roosting locusts in an effort to minimize the damage they caused to crops. The locusts that survived would then fly onto their next location, trailed all the way by the USAID DART on the ground.
In total, the DART was deployed for more than a month. Through their efforts, approximately 400,000 acres were treated with pesticide, helping to end the multi-year locust infestation.
Now, fifteen years later, Juan still remembers what happened on this response and shares stories with his granddaughters.
“Until I show them the photos of it, they don’t believe me,” he said.
“Had I not been there, there is no way I would have believed it either. It was phenomenal and is an experience I still talk about today.”
Read more about USAID’s humanitarian response work and pest and pesticide monitoring.
