KARACHI: Revenue officials and Basic Demo­crats of West Pakistan have been called upon to exercise sustained vigilance to check and destroy the large scale and imminent invasion of extensive clouds of locusts during the next two months.

The ominous warning of the winged menace was given by the Central Department of Plant Protection, according to an official announcement in Karachi yesterday [May 23]. The heavy expected invasion is likely to affect valuable cotton crop and also other kharif crops. The Anti-locust Research Centre has issued the following special warning of the locust situation:

“Now is almost certainly the last chance of preventing a plague. Breeding at present is under way on a scale sufficient to give rise to a plague. A number of medium and many small swarms are certain to form unless the maximum control effort is made. Even the maximum effort may fail to prevent a plague and plans should be made to combat swarm invasion in the months ahead.”

The warning adds: “The most dangerous situation is in Central Saudi Arabia where widespread rain in April, and probably also in early May, has produced the conditions for highly successful breeding. Numerous mature swarms and groups of adults are present and a number of egg beds have been found. It is feared that even the maximum possible control effort will prove insufficient to prevent swarms forming in June.”

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018