Massive Locust Swarms Hitting Africa

[GWS]

Africa's Worst Locust Plague in Decades Threatens Millions

Amazing
Massive locust swarms hitting Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritria and Somalia
And India too it seems
Seems to me they should be eating those locust. You eat my crop? I'll eat you.
In southern Africa they harvest Mopani worms (actually a caterpillar) clean them and roast them up
Locust shouldn't be that different.
Might as well get some benefit from them, right?

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[DivCurlGrad72]

Seems to me they should be eating those locust. You eat my crop? I'll eat you.

Seems like a pretty logical solution. You eat my crops I eat you. The hipster crowd is already paying big money for bug-bars and such at green zebra ...

Chapul Cricket Protein

Chapul Cricket Protein

chapul.com

 

[titsonritz]

Go green.

 

[308]

Locust and wild honey
Yum

 

[Grumpa]

Well, it's what they do.

 

[41mag]

Ain't diversity grand!

 

[Medic!]

The world today.
Anybody see four hoursemen ride by?

 

[Grumpa]

The world today.
Anybody see four hoursemen ride by?

Yeah, two were drunk cowboys and the other two were wearing Sombreros.

 

[Grumpa]

Maybe we should tell these guys.

 

[thorborg]

Manna from Heaven?

 

[GWS]

Flying shrimp!

 

[awshoot]

This news reminded me of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book, On the Banks of Plum Creek, in which an account of such a swarm is made. It was devastating: Laura Ingalls Wilder and One of The Greatest Natural Disasters in American History

The Ingallses had no way of knowing it, but the locust swarm descending upon them was the largest in recorded human history. It would become known as "Albert's swarm": in Nebraska, a meteorologist named Albert Child measured its flight for ten days in June, telegraphing for further information from east and west, noting wind speed and carefully calculating the extent of the cloud of insects. He startled himself with his conclusions: the swarm appeared to be 110 miles wide, 1,800 miles long, and a quarter to a half mile in depth. ... They covered 198,000 square miles, Child concluded, an area equal to the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont combined. ... The cloud consisted of some 3.5 trillion insects.

The locust plague constituted the worst and most widespread natural disaster the country had ever seen, causing an estimated $200 million in damage to western agriculture (the equivalent of $116 billion today) and threatening millions of farmers in remote locations—far from social services in the cities—with starvation. In 1875, Minnesota once again lost more than two million bushels of wheat.

 

[Flymph]

 

[albin25]

locusts are very edible and I believe they are the only INSECT to be considered as both Kosher AND halal compliant.... Maybe Burger King could.... nah, never mind ( that would be "impossible")

 

[nammac]

Manna from Heaven?

Thought swarming locus were a plague. Manna was the sweet wafer stuff that dried up and disappeared like morning dew... IIRC

 

[nammac]

View attachment 656157

Yum...

 

[jeff68]

I

Africa's Worst Locust Plague in Decades Threatens Millions

Amazing
Massive locust swarms hitting Ethiopia, Kenya, Eritria and Somalia
And India too it seems
Seems to me they should be eating those locust. You eat my crop? I'll eat you.
In southern Africa they harvest Mopani worms (actually a caterpillar) clean them and roast them up
Locust shouldn't be that different.
Might as well get some benefit from them, right?

I had the same thought when it 1st popped up in the news

 

[jeff68]

Wonder what the life/pop. cycles are? Cicadas are odd that way.

 

[CountryGent]

I've had chapulines (fried grasshoppers) down in Mexico and it was OK. Can't say I've tried locusts though I understand they edible.

 

[revjen45]

Locusts and grasshoppers are the same critter.
A grasshopper becomes a locust when the population density reaches a certain point. Crowding causes them to become the swarm plague that eats everything in sight.