Chapter 891 Locust Plague
Dense black spots like gauze windows appeared on the horizon, and the whole thing looked like an expanding cloud ball, which was expanding wildly while moving slowly, frightening the onlookers who did not know what was going on.
The painting style is too weird.
Even Bifang observed in confusion before uttering a word that no one expected.
locust !
Upon hearing this word, countless viewers typed barrages of comments.
[Locust, did I hear it right? This thing is a locust? ]
[Fuck, there are still locusts now? I always thought they were extinct]
[You are living in the future century, right? How come there are no locusts?]
[I don’t think I’ve ever seen this thing before]
[Of course I have seen them, but I may have mistaken locusts for katydids or grasshoppers.]
[What is the difference between crickets, katydids, grasshoppers, locusts, and grasshoppers? I never understood it.]
[Hey, hey, is it time to discuss biology now? This thing is so big, it has become a disaster, right? ? ? ]
From the refresh rate of the barrage on the screen, it can be seen that the audience is very confused at this time and has a strong desire to express themselves.
Besides, if they were really locusts, the scale before them was too huge.
From the audience's perspective, it can be called a locust plague.
You won’t eat people, right?
In the eyes of many people, locusts and piranhas are the same type of creatures. Once they gather into groups, they will leave nothing behind after passing through the area, and the area will be filled with gnawed remains.
"It's not a locust plague, there are just a lot of them and it just looks scary."
Faced with the locust swarm that frightened ordinary people, Bifang didn't move at all. He just pulled the animal skin beside him, ready to block it when the time came.
[Isn’t this too much? ]
[How terrible would a real locust plague be? ]
"The wave we are facing is relatively mild. If it is serious, it would not be like the screen window now."
"You will see black clouds thousands of times denser than today, almost blocking out the sun. That is a real locust plague, leaving no grass behind after it passes through."
"When they fall to the ground, they don't even have their own footholds, so they can only lie on their companions, forming a second or even third layer of flesh blanket."
Everyone imagined that scene in their minds and couldn't help but shudder.
That's too horrible, wouldn't it be all green and brown goo when you step on it?
"But even if you encounter a locust plague, you don't have to worry about being in danger. Locust plagues are only extremely destructive to plants and crops. They basically don't eat meat. They will only eat dying animals or animal carcasses when they are very hungry. Otherwise, don't worry that the locusts will gnaw you into a pile of bones when they pass through. That is impossible."
"If you encounter one, wrap yourself in something and be careful not to get bitten or hit in the eyes. Otherwise, you'll be fine."
As Bifang spoke, he grabbed the animal skin beside him, draped it over himself, and covered himself and Harley.
Jerry got into the backpack early. This guy reacted faster than anyone else. When dark clouds just appeared in the sky, he got into Bifang's arms and occupied a safe position.
The locust swarm appears to move slowly, but that is an illusion due to the large size of the target.
In fact, locusts move very fast, moving more than 100 kilometers a day on average. Excluding the time for eating and resting, the pure speed is amazing.
"Kenya has been the hardest hit area by the locust plague, or rather, the whole of East Africa has been the hardest hit area."
The Bifang's voice grew louder, and as the locusts approached, the friction sound became very obvious.
"Kenya is close to the tropics and the climate is not cold, so locust plagues may occur at any time. I remember that Kenya has monitored 75 swarms of locusts since November last year."
"The largest group even formed a locust belt that was 60 kilometers long and 40 kilometers wide, covering an area of about 2,000 square kilometers, with more than 100 million locusts per square kilometer!"
[Fuck, this is too exaggerated]
【Are you sure the unit is correct?】
[This number is hundreds of billions! ]
Because of their large coverage area, it is difficult to eliminate all locusts at once.
They will spread everywhere. African desert locusts can not only wreak havoc in many African countries, but also span across Europe, Asia and Africa, flying from East Africa to West Asia, South Asia, Southern Europe and other places, and sometimes even to South America, covering most of the earth.
With such a large area, it is difficult to catch them all at the same time.
Locusts lay eggs in the soil, so if you eliminate the locusts on the ground, the eggs in the soil will hatch into locusts after a period of time, forming a new batch of locust plagues, which will cause locust plagues to continue to occur.
Even in our country, it took decades of long-term, firm, and highly organized effective governance to barely control the influx of swarms, and even then it still happens from time to time, not to mention Africa, which is comprehensively backward and poorly organized.
As their thoughts turned, the locust finally came to everyone.
The first thing that appeared was a locust that fell to the ground.
Bifang lifted a corner of the animal skin and saw with his own eyes that it landed on a green grass and started to gnaw it at an extremely fast speed with its mouth open.
Soon, locusts fell one after another like raindrops and began to eat the grass like their previous companions.
"In a real locust plague, the density of locusts is very high, with up to 5,000 locusts per square meter, and a total weight of about 10 kilograms. If there are 3 million locusts per acre of land, the total weight can reach six tons."
"Normally, in drought-stricken areas, two or three mu of grain fields can produce one ton of straw, and it only takes 40,000 to 50,000 locusts to eat it all in an hour."
"If there is a locust plague, it will only take less than a minute."
"The most important thing is that locusts eat more than twice their body weight every day, so they can eat up all the crops in an area in one day."
Bifang watched and explained at the same time.
He could also clearly feel locusts falling on his back, that is, on the animal skin, but since there was no food, they jumped away again.
With careful and close observation, Bifang and the audience also saw several locusts inserting their tails into the soil.
Apparently breeding.
"In their normal state, locusts are solitary and severely 'socially anxious', and will avoid physical contact with their own kind. However, in certain circumstances, such as when living conditions are suitable and there is more food, locusts reproduce happily and the population density increases, making it difficult for them to keep a distance from other locusts."
"In this case, if their hind legs are touched frequently, their brains will secrete serotonin and other pheromones, and the locusts will become gregarious. The whole process only takes a few hours."
"Note that only the hind legs can trigger the 'brainwashing' effect, not other parts. As for why, I don't know. It's still under research."
"Social locusts are a completely different species. They even change their structure, becoming more gluttonous and more capable of flying. Although they are not more fertile, the quality of their eggs has improved and their color has changed from green to yellow or black."
"And the smell will continue to attract other locusts to join the group. The locust swarm will continue to expand. When there is not enough food, they will start to migrate. They will reproduce along the way, attract new locusts to join, and of course, eat food along the way."
“That’s how the locust plague began.”
"The number of the waves we encountered is not very large, but it is conceivable that it may not take long for them to become what I call a 'black cloud'."
