What exactly is going on as locusts sweep across East Africa? Will the locust plague in East Africa affect China?

Since the beginning of this year, locusts have swept across East African countries, which are relatively close to China. So, what exactly is going on with the locust swarms sweeping across East Africa? Will the locust plague in East Africa affect China?

1. What is the specific situation of locusts sweeping across East Africa?

Recently in Ethiopia, a Chinese tourist was traveling in Mekelle and took photos of locusts crossing the border. The number of locusts in the video is huge and densely packed. The tourist said that these locusts are not only huge in number, but also much larger in size than the locusts in China. Each one is about one foot long, and they are densely packed all over the sky and the ground, making people's scalps tingle.

2. Will the locust plague in East Africa affect China?

The probability of locusts entering China is low.

This is because after the locusts lay eggs, their migration ability will weaken, some locusts will die on the way to migration, and the newly bred locusts have not yet flown over. Even if the locust baby flies over, the vegetation in front of them will not be eaten by the previous batch of locusts, and there will not be enough vegetation to sustain the energy for migration. Unless the vegetation recovers, they will not fly over again in a short time.

The locust plague is currently in Pakistan and India, in the southwest of our country. However, there are high mountains blocking the southwest region of our country, and locusts cannot fly over the mountains and reach China, so our country is safe for the time being. But if the locust plague enters Myanmar and Thailand from India, and then enters our country from Guangxi, then our country may also become a victim of the locust plague.

3. Will the locust plague in East Africa and West Asia have an impact on my country's agriculture? The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs responded

Judging from the locust plagues currently occurring in China's neighboring countries Pakistan and India, these are mainly newly hatched weak insects that cannot cross the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for the time being. Even if they grow into adults and may fly to Tibet after a period of time, the high altitude of Tibet will not have much impact on China's agriculture.

Experts believe that there is no record of desert locust damage in Chinese historical materials, but experts speculate that desert locusts are distributed in Yunnan and Nyalam in the Tibet Autonomous Region. Around 40℃ is the ideal temperature for the migration of desert locust nymphs and adults, and the relative humidity needs to reach 60%~70%. The largest areas of desert locust infestation are Myanmar, Nepal and India. The migration direction of locust swarms in the outbreak area in spring is India-Nepal-Myanmar-southern Tibet and western Yunnan.

The southern border of Tibet and the western border of Yunnan in my country are adjacent to the desert locust outbreak areas in Nepal and Myanmar. A small number of them may migrate into my country with the monsoon, but the probability of causing harm is very small.