Anita’s Blog – New Project: Looking For Locust
- jjvanm
- 10 minutes ago
- 5 min read
Two of my favorite things – warning about invasive species and promoting citizen scientist projects.
The new project: South Texas Locust Watch has been set up to track a nonnative locust that might soon be crossing into south Texas. Citizens are being asked to keep an eye out for it, photograph it, note its location and report it – a citizen scientist opportunity.
A big thank you goes to Ashley Gregory and Jennifer Herrera, County Extension Agents – Horticulture, Hidalgo and Cameron Counties, respectively, for hosting Professor Gregory Sword, Ph.D., Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University at College Station, Texas.
Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, scientists and concerned citizens attended the recent training at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Weslaco, Texas.
The project is titled, "Community Engagement for Central American Locust Monitoring in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.” It is funded by the U.S. Farm Bill (Plant Protection Act 721) and is a collaboration between scientists at Texas A&M University, UTRGV and USDA-APHIS.
The citizen scientist opportunity is for anyone who might see these large insects to take a picture, note the location and report it. Here’s how and where:
Those who use the Smartphone app for iNaturalist.org, when they photograph and upload their observation of a locust in Texas, their observations will automatically go to the project; users also may “join” the project in iNaturalist but it is not required. Reporting also may be via accessing the QR code for the Texas A&M Locust Watch, or by e-mailing: TexasLocust@gmail.com.
The locust: the Central American Locust, Schistocerca piceifrons; it is native to southern Mexico, through northern Costa Rica.
The danger: The Central American Locust can form swarms. Why is that a danger to the United States? For one, There are no swarming locust in the United States – but the potential is there if the Central American locusts breach the border!
It’s a watch because the locusts are not native to the United States; they are not yet here, but they are getting close – quite close: They are swarming in Tamaulipas and Neuvo Leon. Thousands of hectares/acres have been sprayed under orders of the Mexican Secretaria de Agricultura.
These swarming locusts began showing up north of the Tropic of Cancer in 2021.
What to look for: A large insect two to three inches long, looks like a grasshopper and flies like a bird – it doesn’t leap tall buildings, but en masse, swarms can decimate entire food crops.
Other key areas where Central American locust have been found are in the Yucatan Peninsula, Gulf of Mexico coastal plains and other parts of southern Mexico, including Campeche, Chiapas and Oaxaca.
It’s all about the food. The Central American Locust thrives in grassland and cultivated areas that have replaced forests, often in lowland with warm, humid conditions – like the Valley’s ideal crop habitat.
The juvenile Central American locusts do not have wings, they can’t fly, however, they join the swarm – on the ground, scurrying, racing and travelling in the same direction as the flying adults – toward the next field of vegetation.
Locusts and grasshoppers are not the same, but locusts are a specific type of grasshopper. All locusts are grasshoppers, but most grasshoppers are not locusts.
The main difference is behavior:
Grasshoppers are generally solitary and non-migratory; there are about 11,000 species of grasshoppers.
Locust is a species of grasshopper that has entered a gregarious phase,* where they become social, migrate, and form swarms, a change triggered by overcrowding. There are only about 19 species that are considered locusts.
*The gregarious phase is a behavioral state in locusts characterized by attraction to other locusts, leading to the formation of large, destructive swarms. This phase is triggered by environmental factors like increased population density, which causes physical contact between individuals that releases a surge of serotonin, transforming them from solitary and camouflaged to social and brightly colored.
Grasshopper – look-a-likes? Maybe, maybe not; let the experts identify.
Texas has around 150 species of grasshoppers. Three common ones I have photographed and documented on iNaturalist.org are the American bird grasshopper, which is native to south Texas and northern Mexico; gray bird grasshopper, native to Southern North America, including Mexico (California to Texas); and obscure bird grasshopper, which is widespread across the United States and into Mexico.
One of the annoying things about grasshopper identification is that grasshoppers change their cloak with the wind, don’t expect them to always look the same. It’s better to rely on the experts at iNaturalist.org, and Dr. Sword’s team for accurate identification. Case in point:
A few of my gray bird grasshopper photos at various stages of grasshopper life as having reached research grade on iNaturalist.org:
Obscure Bird Grasshopper
American bird grasshoppers. Below are live specimens in various growth stages, courtesy of Dr. Sword.
More danger: if the nonnative Central American locusts meet up with our native American bird grasshoppers, according to Dr. Sword, there is the potential for hybridization.
Yes, it’s December, and the Rio Grande Valley is headed into cooler months; it’s still a time to be vigilant. If you see a grasshopper-like insect, photograph it; let the experts identify it.
“Both the native species and the Central American locust overwinter as adults and can be active on any relatively warm sunny day in the Rio Grande Valley,” Dr. Sword said. “Any time the temperature is in the 70s or warmer and the sun is shining has potential. They like to bask in the direct sun to warm up when they can. Unlikely to see them out below 70, especially if it is cloudy.”
Following is information from an AI account from a Google search about locust swarms in the United States:
Large-scale locust swarms do not occur in the United States because the last major species was the Rocky Mountain locust, Melanoplus spretus, which went extinct in the early 1900s. The last swarm, prior to the species going extinct, in 1875, the United States Great Plains experienced a catastrophic massive outbreak forming the largest insect event ever recorded, with trillions of locusts consuming everything in their path, devouring crops, forests, even clothes, leading to widespread devastation and government interventions. The plague size was estimated at 198,000 square miles, an area larger than California and contained up to 12.5 trillion insects, weighing 27.5 million tons.
It is an accepted conjecture that the species was inadvertently wiped out by early 20th century settlers plowing the locust’s mountain valley breeding grounds – also an AI generated statement.
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