In this outpost in the Sahara Desert, scientists are working feverishly to add a "Biblical problem" to the weather forecasts:

Locust swarms.

The Desert Locust Center here in the capital of Mauritania, an enormous and sandy West-African country, is employing all kinds of technology - from "eLocust" computing devices to satellite images and crowdsourced locust reports from desert nomads who carry mobile phones - to try to predict when and where these bugs may congregate by the billions.

The hope is to be able to predict the swarms like weather events.

It's no small task, and one with dire consequences. Locusts - grasshopper-like insects - have been decimating crops in Mauritania for at least 3,000 years, contributing to food insecurity and poverty. It's said that after locusts buzz through an area, the trees become skeletons, devoid of bark, and the ground is left completely bare, munched to the roots.

"Sometimes they can hide the sky," said Sidi Ould Ely, a researcher at the center.

When billions of locusts swarm an area - tens of millions can occupy a kilometer during a swarm event - farmers are left without crops and food. Livestock die off, too. In 2004, thousands of people were impacted by a major locust swarm.

Beida Ould Beilil, a date farmer in northern Mauritania, remembers that event well. The locusts ate the bark off of his trees and covered the sky, "like clouds," he said.

"Nobody can stop the locusts except god."

God - or maybe scientists.

Forecasting these events could save lives, according to the Desert Locust Center's scientists, who met with CNN in December.

The locust research group, led by Dr. Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Babah, has amassed what Babah says is the largest database on locusts in the world - showing when the conditions are right for swarms, or "invasions," as he says, and where they occur.

In general, these catastrophic events happen when there has been ample rain in the desert and, consequently, when there is plenty of vegetation to feed on. The center monitors all of this with satellite images. And its army of 150 workers uses eLocust gadgets to instantly upload data about locust sightings from the field.

Adding to that info, the center has started reaching out to Mauritania's nomadic people, who roam the desert with herds of goats, cattle and camels - and, also, lately with mobile phones. The center has given them a free number to call when they see locusts. All of that data helps the center to get a sense of when a swarm may hit.

There's still plenty of mystery in the process, however.

That's because no one knows for sure exactly why locusts swarm.

Koutaro Maeno, a Japanese researcher who came to Mauritania to study these insects, says the swarms definitely have something to do with the fact that when desert locusts start to feel crowded, they change shape and color.

Nice locusts that are not prone to swarming are small and green.

Evil locusts that are starting to crowd each other - the scientific term for this group is "gregarious," but they look far too mean for a conversation over cocktails - get larger, develop barrel chests and change into terrifying colors of red and black.

Their black antennae make them look like little devils.