Killing locusts effectively depends on the scale of your problem. A few locusts in your garden call for simple physical removal or targeted sprays, while large swarms threatening crops require coordinated chemical or biological control. The approach that works best also depends on whether you’re protecting a small plot, a large farm, or dealing with the early stages of a swarm before it grows.
Why Locusts Are Harder to Kill Than Regular Grasshoppers
Locusts are grasshoppers that have undergone a dramatic behavioral shift. When populations get dense enough and individuals start bumping into each other frequently, a surge of serotonin in their brains triggers a transformation from solitary, harmless insects into gregarious swarmers. This “phase change” alters their body color, increases their appetite, and makes them intensely attracted to food-related odors. A single desert locust can eat its own body weight in food per day, and a small swarm of roughly 40 million locusts can consume enough crops to feed 35,000 people.
This biology matters for control because timing is everything. Locusts in the early “hopper” stage (wingless nymphs marching on the ground) are far easier to kill than flying adult swarms. Once a swarm is airborne and covering dozens of miles per day, your options narrow considerably.
Small-Scale Methods for Gardens and Properties
If you’re dealing with locusts on a small property, physical and chemical methods can work well together. Hand-picking works when numbers are low. Locusts are most sluggish in early morning before temperatures rise, making them easier to catch. Drop them into a bucket of soapy water.
For garden-scale infestations, a few practical options include:
- Neem oil sprays: Neem contains compounds that disrupt locust feeding and development. Mix according to label directions and spray directly on plants and visible locusts. It works as both a repellent and a growth disruptor for nymphs.
- Diatomaceous earth: This fine powder damages the waxy coating on locust exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Dust it on plants and around the garden perimeter. It needs to stay dry to work.
- Insecticidal soap: Direct contact sprays suffocate soft-bodied nymphs effectively. Less useful against hard-shelled adults.
- Pyrethrin-based sprays: Derived from chrysanthemum flowers, these knock down locusts on contact. They break down quickly in sunlight, which limits environmental persistence but also means you may need repeat applications.
Encouraging natural predators helps over time. Birds, chickens, guinea fowl, and even cats will eat locusts. In parts of Africa and Asia, communities use poultry flocks as a first line of defense against early-stage hopper bands.
Chemical Control for Farms and Large Areas
When locusts threaten agricultural land at scale, chemical insecticides applied by vehicle-mounted or aerial sprayers become the primary tool. Most large-scale locust control programs use organophosphate or synthetic pyrethroid insecticides applied as ultra-low volume (ULV) sprays. ULV application uses very small droplets and relatively little liquid per hectare, which makes it practical to cover large areas quickly.
These chemicals kill on contact or when locusts walk across treated vegetation and absorb the poison through their feet and mouthparts. Broad-spectrum insecticides are highly effective but carry significant risks. They kill beneficial insects alongside locusts, and neonicotinoids in particular remain toxic to bees for several days after application. Pesticides with residual toxicity lasting eight hours or more are responsible for the majority of bee poisoning incidents. Before any large-scale spraying, you need to assess the area for beehives, standing water sources that pollinators depend on, and nearby livestock grazing land.
Timing sprays for early morning or late evening reduces the risk to pollinators, since bees are less active during those hours. If you’re near livestock pasture, check local regulations for grazing withholding periods after application.
Biological Control With Fungal Biopesticide
The most targeted biological weapon against locusts is a fungal pathogen called Metarhizium acridum, actively promoted by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as the preferred option in environmentally sensitive areas. Unlike broad-spectrum chemicals, this fungus specifically kills locusts and grasshoppers while leaving other insects, birds, and mammals unharmed.
The fungus works by landing on the locust’s body as a spore, then penetrating through the hard outer exoskeleton. Once inside, it feeds on the insect’s tissues and saps its energy. The locust starts weakening within three days, becomes sluggish, feeds less, and dies within one to two weeks. The trade-off is speed: chemical insecticides kill in hours, while this biopesticide takes days to weeks. That slower timeline means it’s best suited for early intervention against hopper bands or in situations where protecting the surrounding ecosystem matters more than immediate knockdown.
Commercial formulations of Metarhizium acridum are applied using the same ULV spray equipment as chemical insecticides, so the infrastructure requirements are similar. The FAO encourages its use in protected areas and organic farmland where chemical residues are unacceptable.
Targeting Hoppers Before They Fly
The most cost-effective locust control happens before adults take wing. Hopper bands, the dense groups of wingless nymphs that march across the ground, are concentrated, predictable, and vulnerable. They move in relatively straight lines and can be intercepted with barrier treatments: strips of insecticide applied across their path so the hoppers walk through treated ground.
This approach uses far less pesticide than spraying an entire area and concentrates the kill zone where it matters. Barrier treatments work especially well with slower-acting agents like Metarhizium acridum, since the hoppers pick up spores as they march and spread the fungus among themselves through physical contact. By the time they would have developed wings, the colony is already dying.
Monitoring is key. Locust eggs are laid in sandy or loose soil, and egg beds can sometimes be identified and plowed under before hatching. In regions prone to locust outbreaks, national locust monitoring agencies track conditions that favor egg-laying and hopper emergence, giving farmers and authorities a window to act early.
Protecting Crops While You Wait
If locusts are already present and you’re waiting for a spray application or a biopesticide to take effect, physical barriers offer some protection. Fine mesh netting draped over high-value crops can keep locusts off, though this is only practical for small areas. Tall grass or vegetation strips around field edges can sometimes redirect hopper bands, since they prefer open, bare ground for marching.
Noise and disturbance can temporarily scatter locusts. Banging metal, using loudspeakers, or driving through a field will disrupt feeding, though the effect is short-lived. Locusts generally return once the disturbance stops. These are buying-time tactics, not solutions.
What Not to Do
Burning fields to kill locusts causes more crop damage than the locusts themselves and rarely kills enough of the swarm to matter. Locusts fly away from fire and land elsewhere. Overusing broad-spectrum pesticides without regard for application rates poisons soil, water, and the predator species that naturally keep locust populations in check. And waiting too long to act, hoping the swarm will move on, is the most common mistake. Swarms follow food. If your crops are green and everything around them is eaten, the locusts will stay.
For large-scale outbreaks, contacting your country’s agricultural extension service or locust control authority is the most effective step. The FAO coordinates international desert locust response across affected regions in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, and national programs in countries like Australia, Argentina, and the United States handle their own species. These agencies have the monitoring data, spray equipment, and pesticide access that individual farmers typically lack.