FAO :: Locust Watch :: Archives :: Outbreaks :: 2006 :: Mauritania
Desert Locust outbreak in Mauritania (October - November 2006)
 

The development of a local outbreak in Mauritania

As a result of widespread summer breeding over a relatively large area of southern and central Mauritania during the past few months, a local outbreak developed in the Inchiri region of northwest Mauritania in early October.

During the first week of October, small groups of mature yellow adults varying in size from 2 to 50 ha with densities up to 8 adults/m2 were seen laying eggs near Bennichab (1932N/1512W).

Hatching started on the 5th and solitarious and transiens hoppers formed small groups. By the 16th, a few small bands about 150-500 m2 in size at densities of 10-20 first and second instar hoppers/m2 were reported. At the end of the month, some hoppers had reached the third and fourth instar and densities had increased to 90 hoppers/m2.

Ground control teams were rapidly mobilized and treated 1,445 ha from 6 to 31 October. FAO provided a helicopter to assist survey teams to check the large areas in the northwest and north of the country. FAO also organized a field trial of the biological control agent Metarhizium (Green Muscle®) against the hopper infestations.

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