Grasshoppers have been ravaging the Earth since before the dinosaurs were born

Nicknamed "lawn mowers", grasshoppers are one of the most common insect groups in the world, posing many challenging problems in ensuring food security.

"Lawn mowers" existed before dinosaurs

Grasshoppers are one of the most common groups of insects in the world. They can be found everywhere, from grasslands, tropical rainforests, to isolated mountain ranges or even sandy deserts.

Grasshoppers cling to trees in Lang Son (Photo: D.K.).

This animal is in the oldest class of herbivorous insects, called Acrididae. They appeared as early as the Triassic period, about 250 million years ago. Thus, grasshoppers existed before dinosaurs walked on Earth (about 230 million years ago).

To date, there are about 10,000 species of grasshoppers existing in the world. The long yellow-backed bamboo locust appearing in Lang Son is a species that lives in groups, has great destructive power to people's crops and plants, and is very difficult to control. Their favorite foods are corn, bamboo, and rice.

In general, locusts can be easily found in Africa and Asia, due to their characteristics of being covered by tropical rain forests. But scientific research shows that the ancestors of grasshoppers actually originated from South America.

About 57 million years ago, locusts began their journey across the Atlantic Ocean, reaching Africa, and then quickly spread to Europe and Asia, reaching a global scale.

According to calculations, a grasshopper can eat plants equal to half its body weight every day.

The ancestors of grasshoppers originated from South America (Photo: Getty).

On a global scale, locusts cause an estimated billions of dollars in damage to agricultural crops each year. In the US alone, locusts cause about 1.5 billion USD in damage each year.

How do people deal with the "locust pandemic"?

Grasshoppers are known to be harmful insects to farmers and crops, but with uncontrollable numbers, they are still a big problem for countries that depend on agriculture.

According to National Geographic, the characteristic of locusts is that they move from one area to another in very large numbers, possibly up to millions or billions.

Swarms of locusts can move over land or across the sea. They consume all types of crops and plants, causing entire vegetation cover to be destroyed, leading to loss of food sources.

The name "locust pandemic" also originates from here. The danger of locust pandemics is that they can cause widespread famine, and then epidemics. Countries in Africa were once the places most severely affected by the locust epidemic.

A flock of desert locusts flies over a farm near Nanyuki town, Laikipia county, Kenya (Photo: Reuters).

In some countries like Pakistan, troops including infantry and aircraft are even mobilized to conduct locust "inspections" in at-risk areas and carry out spraying.

In Kenya, a regenerative agriculture company found a solution to help turn the locust epidemic into an opportunity for agricultural development.

They encourage people to catch grasshoppers by providing catching tools and paying 50 Kenyan shillings (equivalent to 0.4566 USD) per kilogram of grasshoppers, then milling and processing them into powder. .

This powder is then fed into a production line, creating useful animal feed and organic fertilizer for farms.

This is considered an effective initiative for residential areas that cannot be sprayed with insecticides, but still contributes to ensuring food security.