In January, the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737, which attempted to land at Addis Ababa Airport in the capital of Ethiopia in Africa, hurriedly changed its landing airport to Direda and City Airport in the northwest. It was because the locusts appeared suddenly somewhere, and the pilot could not see. In the Kenya newspaper at the time, there were no casualties, but the thrilling moments continued for a while as the pilot attempted two landings.

Looking at the front of the airliner immediately after landing, it was surprising that there was no major accident. The interviews of the pilots are even more shocking. "I couldn't barely see the front with a grasshopper that appeared somewhere in the near future. Eventually I took off and wiped the window with a windshield wiper in the air. I was afraid to try to land again."

● Africa and

Kenya and Ethiopia face another serious concern as the world is fighting Corona19 during the War on Grasshoppers . Grasshopper is the problem. The citizens of both countries are at war with grasshoppers. Because the damage caused by this grasshopper is really serious. As the damage increases, locals even call locusts'mini monsters'.

The locust here is different from the locust we can see in Korea. Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria).

The adult has a yellow body. It has a pink color until it becomes an adult. In the case of adults, it boasts a body length of 70 mm. It is larger than the thumb of an adult. Imagine 100 billion desert grasshoppers of this size covering rice fields and fields. There are no nightmares.

● Do not attack people.

Grasshoppers do not attack people or animals. It does not carry any special disease. However, the amount of crops eaten by these grasshoppers is immense. This is the scary thing.

Research has shown that one adult eats 2 grams of crops per day. Since the grasshoppers eat 35,000 people a day, they can't leave any rice fields. In addition, they fly up to 150km a day in the wind to find new food.


It also has the characteristic of moving only during the day. It usually sits on a tree around 6pm and does not move, then starts moving again around 6am the next morning. The interviews of the locals were very shocking.
"I can see this tree where the grasshopper sits, today, but there will be no tree tomorrow." This means that all the grasshoppers will eat.

Grasshoppers usually have a lifespan of 10 weeks. However, there are also claims that climate change is increasing the lifespan of grasshoppers. Insecticides have no great effect. Since there are so many grasshoppers, it is almost impossible to stop them with pesticides.


Kenya is now under the worst locust attack in 70 years. Nearby Somalia and Ethiopia are also fighting the worst grasshoppers in 25 years. The news is that people in Africa are suffering from famine as the grasshopper eats up all the grain. There are also voices of concern that millions will suffer from food shortages. Because of grasshoppers.

Experts believe that the number of rains that have hit the region from the beginning of this year has increased the number of grasshoppers.

Some people ask if you can eat locusts, but it is possible. However, the problem is that I have used a lot of pesticides in the meantime, so it seems that the method of eating grasshoppers is not correct.

(Photo = Getty Image Korea)