ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A swarm of locusts sweeping across parts of Madagascar is threatening the food supply of around 460,000 families, a U.N. agency warned.
The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization said a crop-eating swarm of locusts has spread through the east and north of the country.
The organization said it was launching an intensive campaign to thwart a potential plague of locusts ahead of the rainy season that begins in October. Madagascar is witnessing a dry spell, which inhibits locust reproductive cycles.
Locusts, the FAO warns, can produce a new generation every two months. Normally a solitary insect, their biochemistry changes when population densities increase and the locusts operate as a single swarm.
The FAO said a "very small part" of a swarm can eat the same amount of food every day as about 2,500 people.
The agency said it needs about $15 million in emergency aid to mount a campaign against the locusts on about 500,000 hectares of land.
