General Situation during November 2013
Forecast until mid-January 2014
The Desert Locust situation worsened during November along the Red Sea coast and in northwest Mauritania. Locusts continue to gregarize and form hopper bands and groups of hoppers and adults in Mauritania, Yemen, and Sudan as well as in Eritrea where an outbreak developed unexpectedly. Afew swarms formed in Sudan and Yemen. Control operations intensified in all countries. Nevertheless, a second generation of breeding will cause locust infestations to increase further in December and January. More hopper bands and small swarms are likely to form along both sides of the Red Sea and, to a lesser extent, in northwest Mauritania. All efforts are required to reduce locust numbers and the potential threat to crops in the affected countries.
Western Region. An outbreak continued in northwest Mauritania where ground control operations intensified and treated some 32,000 ha of hopper groups and bands and an increasing number of adult groups. A second generation of breeding will commence in December with egg-laying, hatching and band formation. Consequently, locust numbers will increase further and infestations could expand and extend into adjacent areas of Western Sahara, northern Mauritania and southern Morocco. Locust numbers declined in the summer breeding areas of the northern Sahel in Mali, Niger and Chad where no significant developments are expected during the forecast period. Limited control operations were carried out against hopper groups and adults in irrigated cropping areas of central Algeria.
Central Region. The situation worsened in the winter breeding areas along both sides of the Red Sea, particularly in Yemen and Eritrea, in November. Ground teams treated more than 9,000 ha of hopper groups, bands, and an increasing number of adult groups that formed on the northern Red Sea coast in Yemen. An outbreak unexpectedly developed on the central Red Sea coast in Eritrea from undetected breeding. Ground control operations treated more than 10,000 ha of hopper groups and bands. Breeding increased on the Red Sea coast in Saudi Arabia where limited control operations were carried out against hopper and adult groups. In Sudan, ground and aerial control operations treated nearly 21,000 ha of hopper bands and groups of hoppers and adults that persisted in the summer breeding areas of the interior. A few swarms formed in Sudan and Yemen. Breeding was underway on the Red Sea coast and in subcoastal areas of Sudan where locusts were concentrating and gregarizing. A second generation of breeding started in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and is expected to occur in Eritrea during January. This will cause locust numbers to increase further and, unless controlled, hopper bands and swarms will form that will threaten the Region. Elsewhere, local breeding occurred in eastern Ethiopia and a tropical cyclone brought heavy rain to winter breeding areas in northwest Somalia.
Eastern Region. The situation remained calm during November. Isolated adults were present in Rajasthan, India. Good rains fell in spring breeding areas along the coast of southeast Iran and southwest Pakistan where low numbers of adults may appear by the end of the forecast period.