How to rid East Africa of locusts? Serve them in a kebab or drive them to cannibalism

Record ID: 1560418

  • Title: How to rid East Africa of locusts? Serve them in a kebab or drive them to cannibalism
  • Date: 2nd July 2020
  • Summary: NAIROBI, KENYA (JUNE 24, 2020) (REUTERS) INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF INSECT PHYSIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY (ICIPE) RESEARCHER CHRYSTANTUS TANGA PICKING LOCUST DISH IN A CAFE VARIOUS OF DIFFERENT LOCUST DISHES LAID OUT ON THE TABLE VARIOUS OF TANGA EATING LOCUST DISH A PLATE OF LOCUST KEBAB (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICIPE RESEARCHER, CHRYSTANUS TANGA, SAYING: "When you go to some of those remote areas where the locust swarms are actually prevailing, a lot of people are eating them. So we think with this background, we think it is something to promote so that a lot more people should engage in this practice rather than shying away and thinking that it is a primitive man's food." VARIOUS OF A RESEARCHER FEEDING LOCUSTS INSIDE A CAGE LOCUSTS FEEDING ON GRASS INSIDE CAGE SILHOUETTE OF LOCUSTS FIGHTING VARIOUS OF LOCUSTS IN CAGE MATING TRACKING FROM SIGNAGE READING (English): "Desert locust - Schistocerca Gregaria"/ CAGES WITH LOCUSTS RESEARCHER MATHEW MWITI SPEAKING DURING INTERVIEW (SOUNDBITE) (English) RESEARCHER, MATHEW MWITI, SAYING: "Locust raring has been in ICIPE since 1989, so even when I found them they were still continuing with other people and I have reared them for more than ten years." VARIOUS OF LOCUSTS IN TEST-TUBES IN A DYNAMIC HEADSPACE SYSTEM (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHEMICAL ECOLOGIST, XAVIER KISETO, SAYING: "We are pushing the air through the insects and then having them in adsorbent, and then from that adsorbent we analyse them in a mass spectrometry to tell us the various composition of it. Once we are able to tell, to know that exactly this is how they smell based on the chemical composition, those chemical composition we send them through the tenographic system where the insect will tell us which among those compounds that they smell of they are kind of familiar with. And then once we detect which compound they are familiar with, we take it further for evaluation in terms of are they really an attractant or are they a repellant." TURKANA, KENYA (JUNE 30, 2020) (REUTERS) SWAM OF LOCUSTS FLYING LOCUSTS ON A DEVASTATED TREE TURKANA, KENYA (JULY 2, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN PROTECTIVE UNIFORM SPRAYING LOCUSTS DEAD LOCUSTS ON THE GROUND NAIROBI, KENYA (JUNE 24, 2020) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ICIPE RESEARCHER, CHRYSTANUS TANGA, SAYING: "One thing we should worry about is the issue of pesticide, mass spraying, aerial spraying that has taken place by so many of the regional governments. So if these insects are being killed by chemicals, and it happens to be eaten by humans, definitely it is going to have an impact on the health. So ICIPE is looking at ways of coming up with safer ways of combating these locust outbreaks, and one of these key methods is using biopesticides." TANGA EATING LOCUST DISH
  • Embargoed: 16th July 2020 07:36
  • Keywords: Africa Kenya Nairobi locusts research wave of locusts
  • Location: NAIROBI/TURKANA, KENYA
  • City: NAIROBI/TURKANA, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Editors' Choice
  • Reuters ID: LVA001CL49MX3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Eat them, poison them, and use perfume to lure them into cannibalism - as a second wave of locusts has been crawling from the earth to devour East Africa's crops, scientists in a Nairobi lab have been experimenting with creative ways to kill them.
    Swarms are the worst for three generations, encouraged by unseasonably wet weather and dispersed by a record number of cyclones, and the destructive pests could cost East Africa and Yemen $8.5 billion this year, the World Bank said.
    Locusts are usually controlled by spraying them with pesticides before they can fly, but the chemicals can damage other insects and the environment.
    So scientists at International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) in Kenya have been experimenting with biopesticides and the use of locusts as food for humans and animals as they look for environmentally-friendly ways to kill them.
    ICIPE researchers were a part of the consortium that discovered an isolate from a fungus, Metharizium acridum, could kill locusts without harming other creatures.
    The isolate, sold under the brand Green Muscle, is now being used across East Africa. This year in Kenya, about 10% of control operations used such biopesticides.
    Now researchers have been poring through 500 other fungi and microbes in their bio bank in the hopes of discovering another.
    Another way of killing them is by luring them into cannibalism. Before locusts can fly they have a certain chemistry and therefore a unique smell that allows them to remain in a group, according to a research by ICIPE scientist Baldwyn Torto. That smell changes as locusts mature.
    Disseminating adult smells among the young can help destroy swarms as locusts become disoriented and their group breaks into pieces. This leads them into cannibalizing each other.
    A lower-tech, but still environmentally-friendly way of combating locusts is eating them.
    ICIPE has been developing nets and backpack-vacuums to capture large numbers of locusts. The protein-rich insects can then be cooked or crushed into meal or oil suitable for animal feed or human consumption. ICIPE organizes regular events to normalize the consumption of insects.
    Researcher Chrystantus Tanga eats the insects himself. In the ICIPE cafe, the heads, legs and wings have been removed.
    "We think it is something to promote so that a lot more people should engage in this practice rather than shying away and thinking that it is a primitive man's food," said Tanga as he sat in front of colourful plates of locust-based meals prepared by ICIPE chefs, ranging from deep fried accompanied by tartar sauce to neatly interspersed among vegetables in a kebab.
    (Production: Jackson Njehia, Baz Ratner)
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