FAO/Sven Torfinn/Panos Pictures

A Kenyan army soldier, working with a member of the NYS (National Youth Service) spraying insecticide onto the ground where millions of instars (nymphs), as yet unable to fly, have gathered. The insects have swarmed into Kenya from Somalia and Ethiopia, destroying farmland and crops. If they develop into adults each female can produce approximately 200 nymphs which will mature and lay eggs themselves about 20 - 25 days after hatching.

According to the UN's Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) the current locust invasion, when an entire region is affected, is known as an 'upsurge'. However, if it gets worse and cannot be contained, over a year or more, it would become what is known as a 'plague' of locusts.