Grasshopper swarm leaves 11 dead

Sydney Morning Herald ^ | November 2, 2003 | Reuters

[aculeus]

Eleven people died and thousands were taken to hospital with breathing difficulties after a swarm of grasshoppers invaded a town in central Sudan.

Health authorities in Wad Medani, capital of the central al-Jezira state, said an epidemic of what they considered to be asthma had afflicted 1,685 people since October 22, all of whom had since been cured.

The government-owned Al-Anbaa newspaper reported 11 people had died from the breathing difficulties.

"The appearance of the epidemic is linked to the unprecedented increase in the grasshopper insects," the daily quoted the health authorities as saying.

Resident Joseph Mogum in Wad Medani, about 176 km southeast of the capital Khartoum, said the grasshoppers gave off a strong smell which caused breathing problems.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation said on October 21 that swarms of locusts were threatening crops in northeastern Sudan, Mauritania and northern Niger, but it was not clear if it was the same species that was affecting Wad Medani in central Sudan.

Mogum said the grasshoppers were smaller than the usual species that appear during the rainy season in Sudan and destroy vegetation.

Heavy rains in Africa's largest country over the past three months have caused floods that have killed at least 20 people.

[farmfriend]

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[keithtoo]

Let's see; penis-shrinking hexes, floods, grasshoppers..... All this and slavery too.

Sudan is Muslim paradise.

[Willie Green]

said the grasshoppers gave off a strong smell which caused breathing problems.

Grasshoppers fart?

I didn't know that.

[nwrep]

Mohammedans versus Grasshoppers. Grasshoppers win.

[max_rpf]

They can have nasty spit!

[NormsRevenge]

camel vs. grasshopper spit or posteriorially(?) emitted gas.. I'll take camel any day.

[Willie Green]

They can have nasty spit!

Hey, that's right!
I had forgotten all about that.
But now that you mention it, I remember that (as kids) we thought the hoppers were spitting chewing tobacco. Kind of a dark brown, yucky spit.

[John H K]

Sadly it sounds like the worst infestation is in the Christian part of the Sudan.

[PoorMuttly]

What they need are more mountain lions. They'd eat 'em.

Ahhhh...I can dream, can't I...

[PoorMuttly]

Maybe they could get them from Australia.

I hear they have them...well....since Muttly's ancestor's master did them the favor of releasing a few.

[Holly_P]

"we thought the hoppers were spitting chewing tobacco"


...Are you telling me now that they don't?

[E.G.C.]

BTTT!!!!!!

[F.J. Mitchell]

The illness is probably coming from the mold spores caused by the floods. The grass hoppers are being used as scape goats.

[whereasandsoforth]

I hope they have grasshopper-free zones in their school lunchrooms.

[mewzilla]

I think what the victims contracted was something I've heard called lung eczema.

[mhking]

So it shall be written, so it shall be done...

Just damn.

If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...

[PoorMuttly]

I couldn't understand why these people got so sick, but now I realize that this smell is a chemical thing, perhaps defensive, and must have been very nasty.

What a rotten situation. I pray for these people. They live in a very miserable place as it is.

Man, what a world.