The Ministry of Agriculture has warned citizens and residents against eating locusts found on the ground as they have been subject to heavy insecticide-spraying.

The ministry’s warning, which has appeared in various local media outlets, said eating locusts might expose humans to serious health hazards.

“Boiling or cooking the locusts for eating purposes will aggravate the adverse effects of the chemicals in the insecticides,” the ministry's announcement said.

Last month, agriculture experts predicted that swarms of desert locusts would migrate to various parts of the Kingdom at the end of March and the beginning of this month. Adnan Al-Khan, director of the Jeddah-based Saudi Center for Locust Control and Research at the Ministry of Agriculture, said the desert locusts were expected to reach the north coast of Saudi Arabia and begin hatching there.

UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) experts said desert locusts originated in Sudan and gradually moved to the southern parts of Egypt. Air currents and spraying of pesticide by agricultural officials have deflected locust swarms to other parts of the Kingdom, they said.