ABSTRACT
The history of locust plagues in East Africa is narrated. It involved the widespread desert locust and red locust with restricted distribution in East Africa. Locust plague control was influenced by their phase life cycles and behavioral changes that were closely synchronized with patterns of rainfall. The geographical spread made locust plagues a greater danger to farming and pastoral economy. The control of the pest required financial contributions and logistics beyond the resources of any single region, hence attempts to mobilize international collaboration for the control of the locust plagues. Control methods varied from physical attacks, the use of pellets of wheat bran coated with poisonous arsenic, to pesticide sprays administered to hopper bands and mature locusts. Both ground and aerial control methods were applied with varied successes. The fast-moving events did not allow for long-term field research rendering responses as emergencies. It was only through regular and sustained regional monitoring during the 50 years that it was possible to control locust plagues in East Africa. The damage to the environment by locust plague exceeded what humans had accomplished contrary to the predictions of the environmental crisis hypothesis.
