Recent reports indicate that swarms have also moved into Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
The situation is serious as both farmers and the government in all the affected countries lack adequate resources and technology to deal effectively with the problem. The locusts, in addition to causing severe localised damage to crops in Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation, have laid eggs over millions of hectares. These eggs, unless destroyed, will hatch in the spring of 2000 posing a greater threat to next year's crops. Locust infestations are an annual occurrence mainly in Kazakhstan and, to a lesser extent, in the Russian Federation, but the scale and intensity of the infestations have increased steadily over the past years. This year, in the Russian Federation, locust infestations are being reported from areas which have not experienced infestations since the 1920's.