{"id":48218,"date":"2025-07-15T21:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T15:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=48218"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:07:51","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T07:37:51","slug":"locust-swarm-pheromone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/15-07-2025\/locust-swarm-pheromone","title":{"rendered":"Scientists Find Pheromone that Causes Locusts to Swarm\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/Science and Technology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Researchers have shown that it\u2019s possible to manipulate<strong> pheromones released by locusts<\/strong> to<strong> prevent them from swarming<\/strong> or engaging in group behaviour that leads to the<strong> feeding frenzy.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Locust swarms have historically caused <strong>massive damage to agriculture across regions.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They collect in large swarms and eat through thousands of hectares of crops in a matter of days.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> 2019\u20132020 outbreak<\/strong> in East Africa, Pakistan, and India was the worst in 25 years.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Traditional control methods<\/strong> use synthetic pesticides, which harm the environment, soil health, and food security.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Thus finding suitable, eco-friendly alternatives<\/strong> to pesticides has been an active area of research.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Locusts<\/strong><br>&#8211; Locusts are the<strong> short-horned grasshoppers<\/strong> with <strong>highly migratory habits.&nbsp;<\/strong><br>&#8211; Locusts can change from a <strong>solitary phase to a gregarious phase<\/strong>, where they form dense swarms that can <strong>travel hundreds of kilometers<\/strong> in search of food.<br>&#8211; <strong>Only four species <\/strong>viz. Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), Bombay Locust ( Nomadacris succincta) and Tree locust (Anacridium sp.) are found in India.&nbsp;<br>1. <strong>The desert locust<\/strong> is the most important pest species in India as well as in intercontinental context.<br>&#8211; <strong>Concern: <\/strong>They cause great devastation to natural and cultivated vegetation leading to national emergency of food and fodder.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Gregariousness Behaviour<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Several animal, bird, and insect species \u2014 including locusts \u2014 <strong>exhibit a social behaviour called gregariousness.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It helps them <strong>form societies<\/strong> in which large numbers of individuals work together, instead of competing, in order to survive.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Scientists have identified a pheromone of interest, called <strong>4-vinylanisole (4VA), in 2020.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Pheromones<\/strong> are <strong>chemical substances<\/strong> secreted by an organism that elicit a <strong>social response<\/strong> in other members of the same species.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>After a locust eats food, it often<strong> emits<\/strong> large quantities of 4VA from its hind legs, it promptly begins to<strong> attract other members<\/strong> of the species when it\u2019s released into the air.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Other locusts nearby subsequently collect together and rub their hind legs against each other.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This in turn triggers the<strong> release of serotonin,<\/strong> a neurotransmitter, <strong>which leads to swarming.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>In the new study, the researchers figured that<strong> preventing locusts from releasing 4VA<\/strong> could potentially<strong> prevent swarming<\/strong>, so they set to work on understanding its production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Study also proposed a five-step locust control strategy<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Using synthetic or other 4VA substitutes to attract locusts to a trapping area, where they can be killed by fungal pathogens or pesticides at a small scale;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Spraying 4VA to prevent aggregation;\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Monitoring population dynamics by tracking 4VA signatures;\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>releasing genetically modified locusts into the field to establish non-gregarious populations;&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>and using the combined strategy of small-molecule regulators in conjunction with biopesticides.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/articleshare?articleurl=https%3A%2F%2Fepaper.thehindu.com%2Fccidist-ws%2Fth%2Fth_chennai%2Fissues%2F139746%2FOPS%2FGUNEKQAPL.1%2BG42EKQBFI.1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Researchers have shown that it\u2019s possible to manipulate pheromones released by locusts to prevent them from swarming or engaging in group behaviour that leads to the feeding frenzy.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>About<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Locust swarms have historically caused massive damage to agriculture across regions.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">They collect in large swarms and eat through thousands of hectares of crops in a matter of days.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">The 2019\u20132020 outbreak in East Africa, Pakistan, and India was the worst in 25 years.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Traditional control methods use synthetic pesticides, which harm the environment, soil health, and food security.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/15-07-2025\/locust-swarm-pheromone\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48218"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49695,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48218\/revisions\/49695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}