Available instantly

Hardcover
£30.00

Paperback
£19.09

£17.99

Promotions apply when you purchase

Sold by Amazon Media EU S.à r.l..

Read with our free app

You've subscribed to ! We will pre-order your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.

Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships and Subscriptions

There was an error. We were unable to process your subscription due to an error. Please refresh and try again.

Image Unavailable

Image not available for
Colour:

To view this video download Flash Player

Desert Locust Plagues: Controlling the Ancient Scourge Kindle Edition

by Colin Everard (Author), Robert A. Cheke (Foreword) Format: Kindle Edition

7 ratings

See all formats and editions

For thousands of years, humans have found themselves vulnerable to plagues of desert locusts. Some fifty countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia have been ravaged, at one time or another, by huge, devouring swarms of locusts. With the consequent, often total, destruction of crops and grazing, widespread hunger and starvation ensued. Colin Everard's book takes as its geographical focus the Horn of Africa, an area which throughout history has suffered catastrophically from locust plagues. Based on his own extensive experience in the region, Everard describes one of the greatest (albeit unsung) triumphs of the twentieth century, namely, how the desert locust scourge has, at last, been virtually brought under control.

Product description

Review

Everard's passages on locusts are interesting, as are those on the technological developments. - The Spectator

An enthralling account for anyone who remembers how tough and yet supremely fulfilling it could be to brave deserts, mountains, the elements and hostility in order to further a crucial cause. If your patch included any of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti or Kenya it is nigh on compulsory reading. - --Bill Jackson, Bodleian Library, Oxford University

One of the great unsung achievements of the 20th century and Everard pays it a fitting tribute. - --Daily Mail

Everard's book is both a memoir of an exciting and sometimes hazardous career - every chapter has a close brush with death - and also an account of the development of the technology. - Times Literary Supplement

In this lovely little book - part science, part autobiography - Colin Everard tells tales of his time in the Horn of Africa 60 or so years ago ... [and] offers a keen analysis of the scientific developments that have helped the cause - from pesticides that don't do too much environmental harm, to satellite observation ... [His] appreciation of the region's natural beauty is infectious. - --Geographical Magazine

About the Author

Colin Everard has worked for over forty years with developing countries as a technical cooperation practitioner. His contribution to the development of safe civil aviation has been widely recognised and he is a recipient of the Gold Award of the International Civil Aviation Organization. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Management, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. He lives in Vienna.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07MV4TD9M
Publisher ‏ : ‎ I.B. Tauris
Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
Publication date ‏ : ‎ 29 Nov. 2018
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 16.2 MB
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 218 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1786724854
Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Customer reviews:
7 ratings

Customer reviews

7 global ratings

5 star
70%
4 star
30%
3 star
0%
2 star
0%
1 star
0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from United Kingdom

There was a problem filtering reviews. Please reload the page.

Inglewood121
Entertaining and full of hope
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 February 2019
Format: Hardcover

A great read, written in the first person, one follows the author in his gripping journey to take control over the ravaging swarms of locusts in the Horn of Africa in the 1950s. This untold piece of human history is entertaining and full of hope! An epilogue gives an overview of the situation as of today, thoroughly researched, this account stresses how coordinating countries can overcome major challenges. I loved the author’s sense of humour and his approach to life, which I personally find very inspiring.

Read more

Helpful

Report
The Lemon Grove
Bill Jackson – Editor, Bodleian Library, Oxford University
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 31 December 2018
Format: Hardcover
Written by Bill Jackson – Editor, Bodleian Library, Oxford University Guide, UN Selected Careers - For Researchers and Scholars.

Desert Locust Plagues – Controlling the Ancient Scourge, by Colin Everard, I.B. Tauris, London, 2019, ISBN 978 1 78831 435 0
If you have dipped into the Guide to Researchers on the UN Career Records Project you may be aware of the distinguished record which Colin Everard had with the International Civil Aviation Organization. Already author of two aviation-related novels, this holder of ICAO’s Gold Award has now delivered himself of an eminently readable 200-page account of his earlier career, in Desert Locust Control. Desert Locust Plagues describes one of the great triumphs of the twentieth century – how this age-old scourge which caused catastrophic damage to crops and grazing, with ensuing hunger, even starvation, has been brought under control.
The facts and statistics which he adduces to set the scene are mind-boggling. A single swarm can extend over 100 square miles. Twenty-one countries were regarded as ‘frontline’ affected and another twenty-seven as open to ‘invasion’. In still air a swarm travels at 12 mph, at 20 to 30 with a tailwind. The mature schistocerca gregaria locust needs to eat half its own weight every day, which means that the swarm can destroy 30-40,000 tons of vegetation in 24 hours. ‘Locusts on the line’ can even disable rail transport in the same way as our fabled autumn leaves.
Following National Service in the Horn of Africa, in 1952 Everard joined the Desert Locust Control – part of the evolving structure for administration of East Africa as the countries of the region moved toward independence. The key need was to be able to predict the precise whereabouts of locust concentrations and prevent their breeding or maturing through the five instars or larval stages. (One hilarious note was struck when the author, having reported a swarm of breeding mature locusts ‘copulating hard’, had a communication from the Control headquarters in Hargeisa: “For Everard. Your message re locust swarm received. Please, stop copulating and kill the locusts”!)
It sounds simple, but could turn into an extremely dangerous business when local elders strongly believed that extensive laying of bait of bran with a 1% admixture of lindane, to destroy the swarm, would lead to failure of the rains. They correctly associated the arrival of locusts with rainfall – they travel on monsoon winds.
Your reviewer did not formally count how many lives the now 88 year-old Everard had, but it seemed like nine at least. Indeed in the final few paragraphs he reflects philosophically on the subject of danger. The book traces the earlier simple scouting and intelligence approaches to the biblical scourge, through to an epilogue updating us to the still vital air spraying of today, FAO-co-ordinated and satellite-aided. In terms of controlling outbreaks, the use of satellite technology has revolutionised control methodology. Nowadays an area of 16 million square kilometres is kept under constant surveillance; screen imaging enables rapid action to be taken to investigate, detect and destroy any locust activity.
The book is non-technical, very much for general readership. It is an enthralling account for anyone who remembers how tough and yet supremely fulfilling it could be to brave deserts, mountains, the elements and hostility in order to further a crucial cause. If your patch included any of Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti or Kenya it is nigh on compulsory reading.

Read more

Helpful

Report