8 July 2024: summer rain started
Key points
- Overview: Locust numbers declined in the spring areas.
- Current situation: Summer rains began in June along areas of the northern Sahel from Mauritania to Eritrea, and the Indo-Pakistan border; adults in Sudan and parts of Egypt, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Algeria.
- Control: Operations continued to decrease by 75% in June compared to May.
- Forecast: Above-average rainfall is expected in July and August followed by a generation of breeding from Mauritania to western Eritrea, Yemen and the Indo-Pakistan border.
In June, the spring season with hoppers, groups, bands, and a few adult groups had decreased significantly in Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the control efforts were nearly finished. Numbers also declined in northwest Somalia and the interior of Yemen but increased in the northern Nile Valley of Sudan as groups of adults slowly moved south. Summer rains began in some northern Sahel regions from Mauritania to western Eritrea, while the southwest monsoon started in the Indo-Pakistan border.
During the forecast, above-average rainfall from July to September, accompanied by an arrival of increased adult populations will occur from western Eritrea to Darfur in Sudan. Low numbers of adults will appear along the Indo-Pakistan border, the interior of Yemen, and between Chad and Mauritania. A generation of small-scale breeding with laying, hatching and hoppers in the summer should start from July onward in Sudan, Eritrea and Yemen, late July in Chad, Niger, Mali, Pakistan, and India, and from August onward in Mauritania and southern Algeria.
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