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Abstract
Locusts and grasshoppers have caused periodic devastations since the very beginning of recorded history and are a threat worldwide until this very day. The most feared of all locusts was (and is) the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk). This pest found in the Mediterranean and Near East regions as reflected by ancient literature: decorations found in Egyptian tombs (6th Dynasty, 2420–2270 B.C.), (Assyria - the Ashurbanipal Royal Library, 669–626 B.C.) and in Biblical, Rabbinical, Greek and Roman literature. The aspects covered herein are those of locust nomenclature, terms used for the development stages (life cycle), outbreaks, plagues and their consequences (famine), locusts as food, etc. Some control measures during Biblical, Grecian, Roman, Mishnaic, Talmudic, Byzantine and modern times (19th and 20th Centuries) are reviewed. Nowadays, the total area invaded during desert locust outbreaks and plagues extends over 29 million square kilometers of desert and sub desert, involving more than 60 nations. Between plagues the ‘natural’ locust population occupies an area of approximately 14 million square kilometers of desert and sub desert.
Control of grasshoppers and locusts has traditionally relied on chemical insecticides, and fungal insecticides for emergency situations this is unlikely to change. However, a growing awareness of environmental issues associated with grasshoppers and locusts control as well as the high costs of emergency control is expanding the demand for biological control.
Different techniques have been used for control of grasshoppers and locust. Ten of bacterial isolates were screened for insecticidal activity against Locusts. First several criteria were set to study the genetic diversity among these isolates. Identification and characterization of these isolates through biochemical tests, protein banding patterns for both vegetative and sporulated growth, plasmid profiles and finally randomly amplified polymorphic DNA RAPD-PCR.