| For centuries, Madagascar's cereal crops and pastures have been chronically destroyed by invasions of migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria) and red locusts (Nomadacris septemfasciata). The swarms are several miles long and can be made up of as many as 50 billion insects. They move at a rate of 25 miles a day and ruin all the vegetation in their path. For several months in summer 2004, Sahelian Africa from Senegal to Egypt was invaded by swarms of desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria) which ravaged crops and threatened some of the poorest people with famine. To eradicate this scourge, it is necessary to spread insecticides by airplane or helicopter. However, the cost, the danger to man's health and the environment as well as these insect's increased resistance have shown this procedure's limitations. A natural pesticide made from mushrooms has recently discovered and it could provide an organic method of eliminating these locust swarms.
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