Why Today's Biblical Locust Swarms can't be Stopped

Billions of Locusts Are Swarming East Africa


This thread was written in response to scientists whom claim that we must strive to save the insects. OK, so I launched a thread several months ago as a boots on the ground short survey as to whom is seeing more, less or the same amount of insects where they live. At the end of the day it appeared that all is basically the same as in NO change. So why are these scientists pushing that agenda? Especially in light of the biblical swarms in Africa. Do they have an agenda?

Second, do not play that global warming card in this thread. Go start your own thread. Read your history and the locust plague in the USA in 1930's. Plus writings of plagues of locusts were recorded during the time the Pharaohs ruled Egypt.

Why I posted this thread and what really bothers me are those "scientists" out there saying we need to save the insects. Seems bizarre doesn't it after reading this article

Why today's biblical locust swarms can't be stopped

Over 80 years later, great locust swarms still can't be contained. Last week, the U.N. announced that desert locusts — the most devastating type — descended upon East Africa, and over the coming months the insects may increase their populations by a whopping 500-fold. "Kenya has not faced a locust threat of this magnitude in 70 years," the U.N. said. A single swarm of locusts, which are voracious grasshopper species that can spread over 460-square miles of land, have been a scourge — at least through the eyes of humans — for thousands of years. In more modern times, the British formed an anti-locust unit at the height of World War II to combat the pests in Africa and the Middle East, and a New York Times reporter pondered, in 1976, if "swarms that darken the sky" and "denude the land of crops" could be eliminated by progressing technology. Still today, the locust affliction continues.

Good News. Locusts are Cannibals and when the food runs out they turn on each other!

"Locusts are highly cannibalistic," explained Couzin, noting that they start cannibalizing when swarming begins and food starts to vanish. "As soon as resources are limited they turn on each other." Though locust swarms impact about one in 10 people on Earth, there's a glaring lack of funding for swarm research. In part, this is because the swarms exist in boom and bust cycles, so there might be less research interest in the years, or sometimes decades, between outbreaks. What's more, Couzin pointed out that locust swarms usually aren't descending upon the rich world. "It's affecting poor people," he said, so there's a lack of interest from wealthier nations.

Can anyone explain this article from another lady from the "North" country of Norway when it would seem their underlying argument is questionable and its right next door to Sweden?

Humanity must save insects to save ourselves, leading scientist warns

a reply to: Waterglass

I think as long as humans continue to cultivate massive farm lands locusts will be there chomping on our food. Maybe develop giant nets and eat them or use them as fertilizer?

a reply to: strongfp

Locusts swarm regardless of agricultural practices.

a reply to: Wide-Eyes

I think it just makes it worse. But you're right.
Clearly they have been a pain in civilizations butt for a long time, guess we just need to deal with it.

I won't mention global warming-but the recent weather in the areas the locusts are swarming has had a lot to do with it.
More than average rain and a warmer spring has created the optimum conditions for locusts.
That combined with growing human population(which requires more land devoted to agriculture) has created a locust utopia.

At least hundreds of years ago you could turn them into animal food(or human food for the desperate).
But today people are spraying them with tons of insecticide,rendering them toxic.
Its a serious problem,we may well see widespread famines in Africa this year because of it.

a reply to: Waterglass
Theses are not the ones out of Revelatios so they are not biblical.

I think we accidentally made one type of locust extinct here in the US. No one knows how it happened for sure, but scientists think something happened to the exact patch of land where they had last laid their eggs that just happened to completely wipe them out.

Bu they don't really know. All they do know is that no one was trying to wipe out locusts. They just never showed up again.

a reply to: Waterglass

We need to save the insects for the same reason we need to save all other species of animals and plants: they all work together in a ecosystem.

Also, biodiversity is important not only from a natural evolution point of view but also for us to find new ways of fighting diseases and other problems, as you never know what we are going to find about some specific species of animal or plant that can be good for us.

As for your statistical thread about insects, the problem is that normal people don't care about insects and do not know the difference between different species, so while a common person may see the same number of insects things may be very different from what they were some years ago, with only one or two species present when before there were several.

Rocky Mountain locust

They think farmers simply plowed them up, but they don't really know for sure.

Locusts and grasshoppers are one and the same. Grasshoppers will go into a swarm and become "locusts" due to the environmental pressure of droughts.

Locusts are grasshoppers which develop gregarious characteristics in suitable environmental conditions forming an organized group. Such conditions are particularly driven by a period of dense vegetative growth after a dry spell. Drought drives locusts to crowd in small areas where there is vegetation. Locusts then abandon their solitary phase as grasshoppers and reproduce at dramatically high rates forming bands of nymphs and swarms as adults.

Grasshoppers and Locusts

a reply to: Waterglass


They could be Stopped using Fuel/Air Explosives . Dropped Canisters from Aircraft in an Isolated Area the Locusts might be in . Burn them All to a Crisp in Midair .......It would Work in Theory , but in Practice might be hard to Accomplish ....

a reply to: Zanti Misfit

How about some 5G Cell Towers? Radiate them to a crisp

a reply to: Silcone Synapse

The insects behind the mayhem are desert locusts, which, despite their name, thrive following periods of heavy rainfall that trigger blooms of vegetation across their normally arid habitats in Africa and the Middle East. Experts say a prolonged bout of exceptionally wet weather, including several rare cyclones that struck eastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula over the last 18 months, are the primary culprit. The recent storminess, in turn, is related to the the Indian Ocean Dipole, an ocean temperature gradient that was recently extremely pronounced, something that’s also been linked to the devastating bushfires in eastern Australia.

originally posted by: strongfp
I think as long as humans continue to cultivate massive farm lands locusts will be there chomping on our food.

That's what is speculated to happen at first, tilling the soil causes the insects to emerge in great numbers but it is also felt to be the reason they no longer appear once agricultural processes take over, it eradicates their habitat.

a reply to: Waterglass

Coz Locust swarms have nothing to do with the Bible per-chance?

I don't even think the insects can read.

a reply to: Waterglass

The locusts in Revelations are not locusts, they're helicopters.

Jaden

a reply to: Masterjaden

Would they not be rather small helicopters?

I would have thought, following that train of thought, some type of microdrone would better fit the profile?