Plague on a plate: Desert locusts in East Africa

A desert locusts sits in a breeding box at the ICIPE lab in Nairobi, Kenya. — Photos: Armstrong Too kikambala Road/dpa

Desert locusts are a plague in East Africa. But what if these destructive pests that cause widespread damage to crops could themselves be turned into a form of sustenance?

Insects are tasty, if you ask Chrysantus Tanga, an entomologist from Cameroon. “As a kid, I caught grasshoppers for fun and ate them straight away,” he says. “They’re so beautifully crunchy.”