In January 2016, Argentina faced the largest locust swarm for over 60 years. Diego Quiroga, Argentina's agriculture agency’s chief of vegetative protection, said that it was impossible to eradicate the swarm, so they focused on minimizing the damage caused by it by sending out fumigators equipped with backpack sprayers to exterminate small pockets of young locusts that are still unable to fly. This method of extermination, however, is unable to wipe out pocket of locusts hidden in Argentina's large, dry forests. The swarm covered an area the size of 5,000 sq. km in Northern Argentina. The locusts were expected to grow ten inches and mature into flying swarms by 5 February.
