locusts plauge afghanistan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15968-2002Apr19.html ^ | 19 april | burt herman, ap puke

[galt-jw]

Afghans Fight Against Locusts

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By Burt Herman Associated Press Writer Friday, April 19, 2002; 2:10 PM

DAR-E KALAN DISTRICT, Afghanistan –– In this Afghan offensive, village men are digging trenches to fight a relentlessly advancing enemy whose hunger for territory is both legendary and insatiable: locusts.

Northern Afghanistan, which has endured poverty, war, drought and hunger, is now facing its worst plague of locusts in nearly 30 years, U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization officials say.

The insects are threatening the part of the country hit hardest by three years of drought just as it is finally blooming with crops – and with peace.

Locusts are not new here, but they have thrived while many Afghans have been spending more time killing each other than combatting their common six-legged foe.

The end of the drought and a mild winter also helped locusts breed, said Andrew Harvey, an FAO official in northern Afghanistan's main city, Mazar-e-Sharif, and the general in the agency's war against the pests.

Aid groups have declared an emergency situation and are racing against time in the "locust triangle" – a region between the northern cities of Kunduz, Pul-e-Khumri and Samangan where the insects are most concentrated.

By late next week, the locusts, now just able to hop, will finish growing wings and take to the skies, becoming much harder to control.

"We're really anxious that people don't see their last effort of growing crops go down the jaws of locusts," Harvey said.

On Friday, a leaping horde of thousands of brown locusts was eating its way across hills green with a light stubble of fresh growth in Dar-e Kalan district, 50 miles southeast of Mazar-e-Sharif. Clusters of the bugs piled on to any piece of greenery they could find across their twisting line of advance, which extended hundreds of yards across the valley.

In their way stood a group of about 50 men from local villages. As a tractor dug a small trench ahead of them, the men waved pieces of plastic, scarves and blankets to herd the swarm into the hole where they crushed them with their feet.

Abdul Ghafar, 50, an Islamic studies teacher, took the day off Friday to fight against what he labeled nothing less than "the enemy of the people of Islam."

[galt-jw]

yeah, enemy of islam, thats about right there, abdul. dont know if we can post full article, so i didnt. click on source

[galt-jw]

earthquakes, locusts and war, oh my.

[Corin Stormhands]

Then isn't their something about flies and frogs and water turning to blood...

[Bommer]

Once they hit a few of those Poppy fields, that country is going to have one helluva problem with a swarm of junkie grasshoppers!

[Carry_Okie]

The UN banned DDT. Now they stand there and wring their hands, with glee.

[hellinahandcart]

First an earthquack, now a plauge.

Thufferin' thuccotash...

[dennisw]

Locusts/earthquakes/war and Taliban Jihad. A real losing streak.

[gitmo]

Once they hit a few of those Poppy fields, that country is going to have one helluva problem with a swarm of junkie grasshoppers!

Oh, the visuals that conjurs up! Reefer madness in the hexapod world. Remember the grasshoppers in the movie Ants?

[gitmo]

From the article : The FAO has been trying to rent pickup trucks, but has found it hard because they are also the preferred means of transport for Afghan soldiers. "The only pickups have guys with machine guns in the back of them," Harvey lamented.

Now that they have a government, efficiency has returned.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

As a tractor dug a small trench ahead of them, the men waved pieces of plastic, scarves and blankets to herd the swarm into the hole where they crushed them with their feet.

The EPA approved method of insect control.

[MissAmericanPie]

Water is already turning to blood, haven't you heard of "Red Tide"?

[Lazamataz]

Lets see: Devestating earthquakes in Afgannystan, killing thousands, and now locusts.

If I didn't know any better, I would swear G-d was pissed.

[Sabramerican]

earthquakes

There was one in upstate NY today.

NEW YORK -- An earthquake felt from Maine to Maryland rattled the Northeast on Saturday morning with a magnitude of 5.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

[Lazamataz]

But no locusts.

[Sabramerican]

NY got Hillary. Close enough.

[Lazamataz]

That's why G-d is pissed at NY.

[Osinski]

Yeah, don't they know DDT is good for you?

[Light Speed]

Maybe the Locusts are on the Burmese[Myanmar] Opium Warlords payroll too.

[Maelstrom]

1) This is Northern Afghanistan, US allies.

2) I'm not aware of the cycle of locusts in that region but it is a known *fact* that some UN busybody had *planted* a box of locust eggs in Iraq. I would not be surprised if the same thing happened in Afghanistan, none here should be surprised either.

Watch and listen. Stand ready.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Salt Lake City needs to send their seagulls, pronto!