Ugandans living in the locust infested districts have been cautioned against eating the desert locusts after reports that the migratory pests have been turned into a delicacy.
Residents in the areas of Kitgum, Teso, and Karamoja sub-region have been spotted capturing the irresistible pests and drying them before consuming them.
Most of the residents claim locusts are totally edible and delicious as they belong to the same family as grasshoppers.
They claim these delicacies have been eaten before, back in the 1960s when they last invaded Uganda.
However, the state Minister for Agriculture Aggrey Bagiire has advised against the consumption of desert locusts.
Bagire while addressing journalists acknowledged that much as the insect pests are edible, eating them could pose life-threatening effects since they have already been sprayed with poisonous chemicals.
Bagire says it more complicated because once sprayed it is harder to know which one is contaminated with chemical or not as there isn’t a tag on them.
The Minister wondered why people are even consuming these pests as if these parts of the country had run out of food.
Bagire further assured the public that the government has taken all safety precautions on the environment by using two chemicals that have been passed and regulated by international bodies that are have dealt with such locusts before.
He also noted that for ariel spraying they will use ultra-low volume pesticides in getting rid of the pests.
Locusts are a swarming short-horned grasshopper in the family Acrididae, they mostly differ from grasshoppers in their ability to change from a solitary living form into an outgoing, highly mobile, adult swarms and hopper bands as their numbers and densities increase. They are internationally known as insect pests.
