 |
|
|
 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2007 
Before Bush's Visit, Locusts Plaguing State of Yucatan
 S. Lynne Walker - Copley News Service
| | Locusts clung to a branch in a forest in the Mexican state of Yucatan this week. The crop-eating insects have sometimes blotted out the sun. (Luis J. Jimenez/Copley News Service) |
Temozon, Mexico – Houses are getting a new coat of paint. Restrooms at the majestic pyramids of Uxmal are being refurbished. English-speaking waiters have arrived from Cancun to serve lunch at a restored sisal plantation.
Three days before President Bush meets with Mexican President Felipe Calderón in the tropical state of Yucatan, everything is under control.
Everything, that is, except a plague of locusts.
Clouds of locusts have hovered over this state since December, sometimes disappearing for days and then suddenly descending in such huge numbers that they blot out the sun.
On Yucatan's highways, the clouds sometimes stretch four miles long and are so dense that motorists are forced to the side of road.
The winged creatures can fly 35 miles in a day, descending on fields as peasant farmers bang on pots and pans to frighten them away.
In less than two hours, they can devour 100 acres of corn.
One recent day, the locusts – each about 2˝ inches long – even drifted into the capital city of Merida, blackening light posts and crunching into the windshields of passing cars.
No one knows how many locusts are sweeping through Yucatan – millions, perhaps billions.
When a massive black cloud crosses the horizon, their numbers seem biblical in proportion.
Archaeologists say that plagues of locusts may have forced ancient Mayans to abandon Uxmal and other nearby cities.
In 1977, Yucatan's locust infestation was so severe that the government sent in the army.
Roger González, who heads Yucatan's Ministry of Fisheries and Rural Development, calls this year's infestation “unprecedented.”
His office has sent brigades of workers armed with the pesticide parathion into forests where locusts land at sunset, when cooler temperatures and the moisture from dew prevents them from flying.
Workers have sprayed tons of the potent chemical on more than 30,000 acres, yet the number of locusts has barely fallen.
Last week, federal officials pledged more than $1.3 million to combat the infestation in five states.
But nothing officials can do will guarantee that locusts won't descend during Bush's three-day visit.
He'll meet with Calderón in the pueblo of Temozon, tour the pyramids and have dinner in Merida.
While the presidents meet, Eric Sánchez will be tracking the locusts.
As coordinator of locust-eradication efforts in central Yucatan, he spends his afternoons driving along back roads, scanning the horizon for a telltale black cloud that signals the locusts' arrival.
He also looks for spots in the forests where they settle at dusk, so his brigades can blast the insects with pesticides before they stir in the morning.
One afternoon this week, Sánchez found his target.
There was a rustle in the trees, as if large animals were passing through the branches.
Then came the unmistakable beating of tens of thousands of wings, followed by a soft sound – like a spring rain shower – as the fluttering locusts defecated on the ground below.
They circled around and around, finally settling on tree branches.
Six miles from Temozon, a black cloud had descended.
S. Lynne Walker: slwalker@prodigy.net.mx
To see more locust photos, visit uniontrib.com/more/yucatan |
| |
|
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us