How Farmers Accidentally Killed Off North America's Locusts

Locusts are a huge agricultural pest...except in North America. What happened to the Rocky Mountain locusts that once swarmed this continent? Researchers think that the colonization of the North American West might have had something to do with their disappearance.
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Sources:
DOI: 10.1126/science.1165939 (Anstey et al. 2009) halachicadventures.com/wp-cont...
doi.org/10.1093/ee/19.5.1194 (Lockwood and Debrey 1990)
academic.oup.com/ee/article-a...
doi.org/10.1163/187498310X523874 (Lockwood 2010)
brill.com/view/journals/tar/3...
doi:10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00209-4 (Chapco 2004)
Image Sources:
www.storyblocks.com/video/sto...
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[@SciShow]

Go to Brilliant.org/SciShow to try their Solar Energy course. The first 200 subscribers get 20% off an annual Premium subscription.

[@ritabecca2813]

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[@darrenduke5264]

Use English units please. Metric units are not understood or appreciated in the English world. We didn't win WWII to convert to enemy units.

[@davidrox4591]

Well at least I didn't kill them all with my Daisy Red Ryder, had me worried for a minute.

[@Rick_Sanchez_C137_]

SciShow LLM, a group of Marxist Grasshoppers that think they are special and shouldn’t have to work for their food; they get together to destroy things and steal from others... nobody has been able to prove whether or not they are hired to do this on Craigslist and paid by organizations controlled by George Soros, but as Samuel Jackson has said, “an absence of evidence is NOT evidence of absence.”

[@MQN-i9k]

Well, they are back and strong.

[@darkstar2874]

If any species were to go extinct in North America I’m not particularly broken up it was locusts honestly.

[@emergencyfood3568]

This is what an uninformed layperson would say. Clearly you have no understanding of the importance of biodiversity and the permanent consequences and implications brought about by the annihilation of a species.

[@allisonjohn6389]

Zack Saavedra I think a lot of us are learning about this for the first time. Do you know what the consequences were/will be?

[@allisonjohn6389]

@@emergencyfood3568 I agree that loss of biodiversity caused by human activity is a huge problem. However, I don't think it really applies to the Rocky Mountain locust since there are so many other grasshoppers that are almost identical except they don't eat crops in such large magnitudes.

[@Devin_Stromgren]

@@emergencyfood3568 Clearly you have no understand of the mass human suffering locusts have cause throughout human history.

[@allisonjohn6389]

​@Kodach Zach There's no need to call names.

[@Failedprodegy42]

We had a locust swarm in Mississippi when I was a kid. They destroyed all of our crops we intended to sell. It was so bad we had to break up the family. My little sister and I went to stay with distant family. It was over two years before we were all together again.

[@theReeyver]

Locust don't swarm in north America it's one of the only continents to have locust swarms. Maybe you are thinking of Cicadas

[@MQN-i9k]

Well, they are back and strong.

[@17h127]

When I was little, maybe 15 ish years ago, I remember driving in the middle of nowhere somewhere in either AZ or NM with my dad. All of a sudden there were huge grasshoppers everywhere for miles. Maybe we do still have them.

[@Nazuiko]

@@theReeyver Isnt that just the plot of Grapes of Wrath

[@redshift1976]

@@Nazuiko By Joad, I think your right. 😂

[@darkfool2000]

Honestly, I view this as a net gain. It's easy to talk about the benefits of locusts when you live in a country without them, but the countries which still have them struggle to contain them.

[@christopherbertoli7322]

Kind of. Not dealing with sudden and massive crop loss isn't a bad thing as far as food security goes, but knowing we live in relatively fragile ecosystems means that being able to accidentally wipe out a species should be terrifying. Imagine if it were bees?

[@donaldkasper8346]

One would think there is a way to scoup them up with fans and use them dried as animal feed.

[@kistuszek]

@@donaldkasper8346 depends on the kind. I heard the ones in africa can be poisonous.

[@captin3149]

@@vottoduder Are you counting all the species that have gone extinct without taking into account the new species that have developed? Life isn't ever going to end on this planet completely, not without something that would actively destroy the planet. Even worldwide nuclear war that may annihilate all humans wouldn't do it. Life would bounce back, as it always has. the ECOSYSTEM is fragile as it IS, but that's because it's always changing into a new ecosystem every time species go extinct and new ones develop.

[@OneNationUnderGod.]

@@captin3149 exactly, look at the devastation of Mt. St. Helens and how quickly life bounced back.

[@robpolaris5002]

I have a danish ancestor who joined the LDS church in the 1800’s and moved to Utah. He lived in the area near Utah lake(Now called Provo). I believe in 1848 The locusts wiped out all their crops the first year his family was in Utah and the locusts went all the way to Salt Lake City eating anything not nailed down. The seagulls in SLC ate most of them but Provos crops were decimated. My ancestor was a fisherman in Denmark and he instructed people in the town how to make nets, barrels and boats. The men cut down trees for boats and barrels and went fishing. He along with his sons brought in tons of fish from Utah lake, so many their nets kept breaking. The lake was stuffed with fish, mostly trout. The women were responsible for cleaning and packing the fish in salt and repairing the nets. They put the fish in salt and the community survived their first winter in Utah thanks to Peter Madsens experience and the whole community working together. I heard this story as a kid from my Grandmother who was born in 1920 in Provo. I later also found this story in a book called Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah.

[@who4743]

That book is filled with so many interesting stories, and that particular story was even talked about in school during history class one year. Your ancestors name lives on.

[@Emophiliac2]

Mormon crickets are, not surprisingly, a cricket, not a locust.

[@levyrangeletchichury9279]

That's a really interesting story. I'm also from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know some of those stories but I didn't know about that one. I liked it!

[@eric2500]

Good story! I thought you were going to say that the lake fish ate some of the bugs. Anyhow, thanks for the Provo story.

[@blakehansen8284]

1/5 of this comment pertained to the video. Cool you know your family history though.

[@kellbing]

So, locusts are grasshoppers with a mob mentality.

[@fitrianhidayat]

Grasshoppers lives matter

[@weirdalexander8193]

Kelleen Louchart they’re like humans on Black Friday

[@starrychloe]

Antifa

[@cortster12]

@Peter B ?

[@Nata-rb4vc]

This comment is underrated

[@waterunderthebridge7950]

1:36 “And one day, when the world needed them least, they vanished...”

[@MichikoHoshi]

2020 isn’t over yet. The surprise for September is the return of the Rocky Mountain locust

[@mal2ksc]

@@MichikoHoshi They're gonna crossbreed with the murder hornets.

[@kayrius]

@@MichikoHoshi they moved to South America. They were in Argentina months ago.

[@ginnyjollykidd]

Natural selection works its emotionless machinations. I call it natural selection because humans had no idea what they were doing.

[@EXOPLANETnews]

Hey i have an interesting channel about space and mysteries if ur curious about it do visite my channel once pls 🙏..

[@mikemortensen4973]

The loss of the Rocky Mountain Locusts is supposedly the biggest reason for the extinction of the Eskimo Curlew. It was a type of bird that migrated huge distances and one stop was in Colorado and the general region, where they were feasting on these locusts, even in years they were not swarming. There were a lot of them even in non-swarming years to go around. There are other species of similar Curlews that made it, so their loss was not a huge deal.

[@scottulbrich5376]

there are Curlews in E. Oregon

[@vanpenguin22]

Well, Maybe that species is responsible for wiping out the Rocky Mountain locusts? Just a guess.

[@mikemortensen4973]

@@vanpenguin22 Mutually assured extinction? Two species wiping each other at the same time!! "We're going to wipe out your species!" "No, we're going to wipe out your species first!" "Hold our beers for a minute."

[@vanpenguin22]

@@mikemortensen4973 Well, As soon as Vlad says "Hold my vodka ", hopefully the civilized world,(doesn't include the sleepy Joe, Kamala Pelosi Schumer AOC regime) knows what to do.

[@gamester512]

It's also worth noting just how much of a percentage of species have gone extinct over the course of history. I think to this day it's only around 1% of all species that have ever existed are still around today (that we know of, at least). If a species can't adapt, they go extinct. That's just how nature works, cruel as it may sound.

[@JazzBuff23]

From 1955 to December 1958 I was a radar operator and we picked up locusts twice during my time there. One very large swarm hit Rapid City and I actually drove on the street downtown, rolling on them. I saw them land on a tree and every leaf was gone in seconds.

[@ScorchyScorch]

I'm guessing Courage returned the slab to King Ramses. Thank you, Courage!

[@wraith4978]

Eustace: picks it back up ask for an offer. King Ramses and 2020: 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗 🦗

[@TremixNeo]

Underrated

[@brianpso]

He better have not accepted less than a million for it

[@bone8352]

@@brianpso The things I do for love...wait a minute.

[@hydrogendiamond5830]

But what was his offer?

[@PowerhouseCell]

*"There are no mistakes, only happy accidents" - Bob Ross*

[@LegoCookieDoggie]

Taking this quote into this context just highlights the bias between how humans value insects. If it was like some sort of mammal with the same ecological role, it would actually garner a different reaction. As an entomologist I am disappointed in seeing how people thing "wiping out" ANY species is a good thing.

[@iloveyoushima]

@@LegoCookieDoggie How is it not a good thing?

[@MrKirner]

@@iloveyoushima Well, it definitely sucks if you're a locust XD

[@theodorekim2148]

Hey didn't expect to see you here, I love your videos!

[@budmeister]

@@spectablis Humans are a virus.

[@LincolnDWard]

To be clear, we do still have some types of locusts - just not this particular type, and they don't form huge swarms like they used to. I used to catch High Plains locusts during the summers as a kid in eastern Colorado.

[@eyeballengineering7007]

I've seen huge swarms. Where the skies are dark and the roads are slick. In central Nevada. Strange that I'm told that doesn't happen when I've literally seen it with my own eyes. Also, I know what a Mormon cricket is and have seen their swarms and migrations as well.

[@guildig1]

We had swarms here in Arizona back in the 80s and I have always wondered what happened to the swarms.

[@had2galsinthebooth]

Grasshoppers were a plague during the Depression. Between drought and economic problems it is hard to say how many more people died due to grasshoppers eating their way over the land,taking whatever survived drought.

[@jansenart0]

What did we lose with the extinction of the Rocky Mountain Locust? Famine, probably.

[@gg3675]

@@nanookrubbedit There was also literally a genocide being carried out at the same time by the US Army though.

[@BothHands1]

sure, but with the loss of resource dispersion, we probably gained a lot of desertification. it may have even contributed to the whole dust bowl situation. he did specifically say they were responsible for distributing nutrients across the lands. they may eat crops in one area, but as they keep flying, they get eaten by birds, turned into guano, and fertilize the land. there are always consequences for our actions that change the environment. their extinction probably led to the extinction of many different bird species that relied on them as prey -- the same birds that also were responsible for dispersing seeds of various pants and trees across long distances. the short term benefits were probably wonderful, but we'll honestly never know how severe the long term consequences were and still are.

[@qixxxz]

The birds and fish that ate them. The larger animals that ate the birds and fish, ect.

[@themonkeyspaw7359]

Danielle Spargo Worthwhile tradeoff honestly.

[@BothHands1]

SirTrumpington The 3rd you can't really say, because there's no way to know the true extent of the environmental change. if we still had productive farm land across all of the south western usa, it would probably make up for the crop loss in other states. with more birds to disperse seeds, arizona may be covered in forests, with far more resources than what may have been saved from occasional locust swarms. forests keep water in an area too, by releasing that water as clouds that cause rainfall in the area. aside from that, just the extra productivity of our fisheries alone may have made up for the crop loss. i'm not saying any of these things are a certainty, but we will never know how much we lost by destabilizing the ecosystem. in the short term we gained more wheat and soy beans to feed cattle, but at what cost? neither of us know.

[@joedellinger9437]

There is a whole book on this called “Locust”. At the end the authors hint the locust may still be hanging on in some protected areas, but just never gets to the population densities that trigger the change to swarming mode. Or maybe those mormon Utah settlers prayed so well that they smited their nemesis to extinction?

[@leonjocelyn2323]

Mormon crickets aren't locust. They're different and utah still has problems with them today. You should look up a pic of them cause they are weird.

[@Bitsyboo05]

Joe Dellinger I read that book years ago too so this video’s info wasn’t new to me. It is a good read.

[@standavison328]

Nothing like a good SMITE! to clear things up.

[@Heather-xm9ul]

As annoying as seagulls are, I think the trade was worth it. I wonder if the Utah population of seagulls has genetically diverged from the coastal populations 🤔

[@Juber777]

@@Heather-xm9ul doubt it, I lived in North Dakota and they had..."seagulls" too.... but since there is no near sea we called em slewgulls, since slews/ponds were the most water bodies in North Dakota..

[@omiachan4]

I remember experiencing a grasshopper swarm in Arizona back in the early 90s. Covered our whole town, couldn’t go out the door without squashing them for a few days then they disappeared. They may have been a different kind of grasshopper. Idk but worse animal experience ever 🤢

[@richardstephens5570]

Pallid-winged grasshoppers.

[@douglasostrander5072]

I lived in Lake Havasu City then. It was kind of gross, squished all over the place including in buildings.

[@ronaldkulas5748]

In 1973 a hoard of grasshoppers denuded my grandparents' farm in eastern North Dakota. Later that summer, in early September, my grandparents lilac bushes blossomed again for the second time that year.

[@bhatkat]

Trees sometimes do this as a reaction to storm damage and such, have seen it apparently random, blooming in August.

[@peachibread1983]

honestly I wouldn't be grouping in locusts with "one of the tragic extinctions" like the passenger pigeon. I would probably refuse any efforts to bring them back as well.

[@TheColonialGamer131]

Big W for humans

[@nicasa78]

I thought the same. Why the positive spin on swarming.

[@mouserr]

yeah so the down chain extinctions dont matter to you only the local immediate stuff. got it you dont care so long as your comfort is guaranteed

[@buhgingo2933]

@@mouserr yessir

[@jonathanwells223]

@@mouserr look at this fool arguing for the locusts

[@KaiserMattTygore927]

I'm wondering if these still exist in their "regular grass hopper" state, but lost the ability to swarm as it became a liability over the decades?

[@darkfeffy]

I think so too

[@sgtbjack]

I don't believe they "lost" the ability. I just think it hasn't been needed in North America or they moved. In 1988 locust were caught traveling across the atlantic. If it had never been seen we would still be assuming they are all different species around the world.

[@bonafidemonafide7810]

@@sgtbjack It could be that their numbers are so low the chances of enough locusts bumping into each other to trigger the swarm phenomenon is almost impossible

[@APAstronaut333]

The Americans took the Rocky Mountain Locust to court and won

[@xizang3815]

Don't bet on it. Keep a full pantry.

[@victorvest129]

Very good video and information

[@ReadingDave]

Thanks for a well presented informative video which has sparked questions and metaphors for me.

[@jacekpiterow900]

When it will happen to mosquito? I cannot wait. Itches everywhere...

[@rileybaker8914]

Florida is about to release genetically modified Mosquitoes to kill off other Mosquitoes.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

Hummingbirds and dragonflies, dawg. They eat them like candy.

[@coryz.872]

Dude you have malaria

[@TheChickenRiceBowl]

@@rileybaker8914 I thought they decided against that?

[@rileybaker8914]

I just seen where they were doing it the other day. TIME TO DO A LITTLE MORE RESEARCH FOR ME!!

[@gg3675]

Early 1900s farmers: "Yay America has no threat of locust famines!" *depletes soil and causes dust bowl famine like a boss*

[@absalomdraconis]

@Kendra VanBurkleo : Farmers enlarge it, but it would be there regardless. Those things are formed as a consequence of large rivers regardless of runoff.

[@shioramenrabbit]

@@absalomdraconis It's there because humanity, predominantly the runoff associated with agriculture however serc.carleton.edu/microbelife/topics/deadzone/index.html. There's really no use in pretending it's not related to large-scale agriculture; we as farmers know it - farming is at its essence changing nature to suit the needs of humanity. Whether there are things we can do to better allow both the needs of feeding nations, and the health of ecosystems is another question.

[@icecreambone]

@@shioramenrabbit thanks for the resource

[@TechnoL33T]

Fed a quadra kill for an inhibitor? WORTH.

[@ginnyjollykidd]

*Then brings in kudzu for ground cover, which works, but it takes over the environment by rapidly growing over vegetation, blocking light, and fixing nitrogen for itself that gives it an unfair advantage over other vegetation and kills it.*

[@apollion888]

Dude, that's the best video you've done so far, you're almost there 🙂

[@Jahspecs1]

An excellent review!

[@richardkenan2891]

Not since smallpox has a species extinction bothered me less.

[@patrickblanchette4337]

1:54 Wouldn’t be the only time this phenomenon happened

[@anarchyantz1564]

Why weep liberal over a flying flea infested rat? There are millions more pigeons around if you want to go hug them.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

@@anarchyantz1564 well when you put it that way, a flea infested flying rat went extinct because they were too delicious.

[@massimookissed1023]

@@OtakuUnitedStudio , not even. The passenger pigeons were wiped out for "sport".

[@patrickblanchette4337]

Anarchy Antz It’s more sarcastic weeping, but still, it would have been amazing to have seen a huge hoard of them fly over & blot out the sun. It would’ve also been a great idea to bring an umbrella in case of any unexpected .... “showers”.

[@patrickblanchette4337]

Massimo O'Kissed Not only that, but I’ve also read that another big factor in their demise was habitat loss (I mean, a huge hoard would’ve required a lot of undeveloped land to sustain itself).

[@Nickle_King]

It could easily also be that killing off the locust was a good thing, as the swarms, in your hypothesis, would have spread out, devoured the plant life there, then returned to the swarm home. This would have destroyed plant life in neighboring areas, while leaving before mass death and decomposition could rejuvenate the soil. Just saying. Not all change is bad.

[@rohanshah7559]

Yeah people seem to enjoy talking about hypothetical cons over concrete pros for some reason

[@keilder8543]

Wow! I did not know that. Great video!

[@gfg7788]

“Within a couple of decades, the species was gone - at least, we’re pretty sure they are.” 2020: “Ride Of The Valkyries”

[@aought2]

I have never seen as many grasshoppers as I have this year, hope the flocking behavior isn't just waiting for enough numbers.

[@Marc83Aus]

Yeah just when they think its extinct there will be the biggest swarm in history.... Oh right I forgot it's 2020, see you in a few months locust swarm.

[@geraldfrost4710]

"Buzz buza buzz buzz! Buzz a buzz buzz! Buza buzz buzzzzz buzzzz!" They're back, they're black, and they're coming in swarms to a theater near you! Locusts! The Sequel! It's 2020; you knew this was coming.

[@Jakubanakin]

Wait, why do they change the behavior so suddenly? How does that happen? You cant just skip the most interesting part!

[@massimookissed1023]

www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/a-brain-chemical-changes-locusts-from-harmless-grasshoppers-to-swarming-pests

[@massimookissed1023]

_"In deserts, however, the rains are not sustained and food soon becomes more and more sparse. Thus large numbers of locusts are funnelled into dwindling patches of remaining vegetation where they are forced into close contact with each other. This crowding triggers a dramatic and rapid change in the locusts' behaviour: they become very mobile and they actively seek the company of other locusts. This new behaviour keeps the crowd together while the insects acquire distinctly different colours and large muscles that equip them for prolonged flights in swarms."_

[@kelly2fly]

Steven Strain 👍👍

[@carlorielmendez6505]

@Steven Strain Imagine eating your brother, and then suddenly, wings burst out your back. Well, hoppers have them, but everything they have suddenly grow big.

[@T0YCHEST]

I found how they change species essentially in an old KZbin vid kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4a1opZ_ZZ18eZY

[@joeblow3905]

Nice work, learning is fun🥳

[@bluefmi]

short and sweet. love your video

[@unidentifiedbipedallifeform]

Now if we could just "accidentally" wipe out mosquitoes there would be a silver lining to 2020. Update-wow this really blew up. There are a lot of nuances to the idea of wiping out mosquitoes. Of course we wouldn’t want to completely eradicate all of them drastically effecting the food chain and perhaps causing other unintended consequences but as far as mosquito bites go I wouldn’t miss those.

[@22espec]

Let's hope that we don't end like China when they decided to get rid of the sparrows.

[@theretard666]

AFAIK, people are trying. The idea that's been floating around, whereupon males than can only produce other males as offspring (or sterile offsping, I forget the specifics, sorry) are put into the environment, has been recently put in to practice recently. Some got released in florida a couple of months ago, I think it was.

[@anarchyantz1564]

They are doing this down in Florida at the moment with genetically modified ones and the liberals are whining about it.

[@Tenkai917]

@thewanderandhiscomp No they wouldn't. While some species DO eat mosquitoes, they do not feed on them exclusively and are much more efficient at catching other types of insects that provide a higher calorific value.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

@thewanderandhiscomp Not likely. Mosquitos are part of their diet but not the only one.

[@thefrub]

Scientists: please, do not Jurassic Park the locusts. Let them stay extinct

[@adampickard9880]

Scishow in 2032: how bringing back this extinct insect may solve impeding food/protein shortage

[@anarchyantz1564]

@@adampickard9880 Except its counter productive as you need more food to grow them than the protein you get back from it. They need to stay dead like lots of failed species.

[@earlspencer7863]

@@anarchyantz1564 don't know your source but insects are probably the most efficient protein source available.

[@gg3675]

The already did o.O kzbin.info/www/bejne/aWiqgJeLYsyId9k

[@Aeronor2001]

"We filled in the genetic gaps with mosquito DNA!"

[@tiger8linny788]

Fascinating report, articulate, terrific narrator❣️

[@peteacher52]

Good commentary, well documented without the histrionics associated with too many US presenters. Locusts gone; now let's see about fire ants.

[@zacharyrollick6169]

I'm filling their holes with flaming gasoline, but they just keep coming!

[@totallynotdelinquent5933]

Man those locusts storms in africa/india are insane.

[@eduwino151]

doing booming business catching , drying and turning them into chicken feed

[@DanStaal]

Having lived through one of those - Yes, absolutely they are.

[@SkepticalCaveman]

Just catch and eat the locusts instead of the crops.

[@PierroCh5]

If only locusts tasted good and were nutritive !

[@bhargavbhat9171]

@@PierroCh5 I don't know if they're tasty but some African cultures do use them as food.

[@Seadalgo]

Looking at pictures of the July 1931 grasshopper swarm from grasshoppers that weren't even true locusts makes me glad that real locusts are a thing of the past

[@Sara3346]

They aren't though they're just not in North America, all it would take would be a couple making it in through a grain shipment.

[@kylejohns2288]

@@Sara3346 no locusts are quite fragile it would take a significant population to jumpstart them

[@Sara3346]

@@kylejohns2288 Clearly you know more than I do on this subject, where can I go to read from the same sources as you?

[@seanrathmakedisciples1508]

@@kylejohns2288 kzbin.info/www/bejne/m32ac3x9o89niaM

[@adrianjamesgamboa5236]

@@Sara3346 It has been implied in the video that the locusts' breeding grounds are in wet soils near rivers in valleys. No one sane decides to bring food or packages [directly] to a region with no human activity. Neither can a couple of insects migrate from cities and guarantee to settle on these specific spots on their first try, while reliably reproducing with their future generations always being successful. It is improbable unless someone terrible has some motives.

[@davidwolf2562]

I don't know what happened to the locusts but the eight minute ad that preceeded it was awesome ... I gotta go buy some bags now ...

[@Jzwiz]

We had a locust swarm here in mn around 15 years ago, everything was coated with em but it wasnt some state wide swarm (prob too cold for that) and it led to some farmers here selling their land to the developing housing market

[@crystalthunderheart8895]

I remember we had to read Little House on the prairie. And they described swarms of grasshoppers that blanketed the land like a flood. There were so many of them that they would drown and fill the Creeks where the others could just walk on top of them. They described a vivid image of them crawling over and through the house over the baby chair where the baby was sitting and it was just spitting it out of its mouth kind of like those army ants. All of them going in one direction for some weird unknown reason. And before they all hatched. The whole Fields were full of these pods as far as you can see, and each pod had around 30 eggs

[@HaalvarBrandGoods]

As a kid growing up in the mid west I remember playing with grass hoppers during the summer. They were everywhere. Past several years though, spotting one of these bouncy bois has been few and far between. Don't really miss them particularly, but it is surprising how rare they have become

[@Juber777]

"mosquito spraying" in areas, mostly cities, is poisoning the food chain, hence everything and anything caught in the crossfire of the spraying....frogs, birds.... everything else but the mosquitoes.....

[@mikemortensen4973]

In Indiana when I was kid, we had the green grasshoppers but also a gray type that flew around a lot and it's wings had a yellowish outside border. I have no idea if they still exist there, don't live there any more. Most types of the green grasshoppers don't fly, which makes locusts a type of grasshopper that fly. Green species never fly, they just hop. If anyone can show me a video of a green species flying, I'd be interested in see it. I had a pet crow that had a broken wing and I fed it a lot of large fat, green grasshoppers. They were easy to catch because of the fact that they didn't fly. I'd make a super fast "karate' grab when they were sitting in the grass or weeds. They absolutely never flew.

[@rogers4760]

@@mikemortensen4973 Down in florida they've been having a boom.I can't seem to get rid of them honestly.

[@punothebear]

@@rogers4760 Are those the hoppers called Lubber Grasshoppers? I was touring down in the Everglades and there were plenty of the things. They are very colorful which is to warn any possible predators away. I threw one to a nearby little gator which promptly spit it out.

[@Rhaspun]

I still see them around here in California. Only during the hotter months of the year.

[@BaldurtheImpious]

I remember when I was a child, we had a massive swarm of Locusts in Utah that hung around for maybe 2 years and then never returned.

[@allenferry9632]

I saw a swarm by Lake Hodges in San Diego California about 15 years ago. It was only about 6 square miles but pretty impressive. They ate the grass down to the dirt.

[@melvinshine9841]

Now if only we could find a way to accidentally wipe out cockroaches without wrecking the environment. Sick of these giant ass roaches that are almost as big as the anoles around here.

[@TheGesterr]

Ah a fellow Floridan, I just crushed a 2.5incher scuttling around my toothbrush yesterday :(

[@melvinshine9841]

@@TheGesterr One had the audacity to crawl out of my sink while I was brushing my teeth. You keep your house clean and spray everywhere but they find a way to just phase through the walls into your home.

[@qweqwe9678]

Once I saw a spider (harmless one) in my room. Just when I was about to whack it, I thought "I saw some cockroaches around here the other day", so I decided to leave the spider alone. Couple of days later, I found some cockroaches dead under my bed, sucked dried by something. Thanks spider !!

[@dogphlap6749]

Funny thing but I have not seen a cockroach for a year (normally they are a plague where I live in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly in summer i.e. now). Others have noted a massive reduction in the number of times they have to stop to clean their car/truck windscreen on long trips. Looks like something serious is happening to the world's insect population. Bad news for our birds but I can tolerate the loss of cockroaches and hopefully mosquitoes.

[@Jon58004]

@@dogphlap6749 Scary to think about.

[@Master_Yoda1990]

But the bison didn’t go extinct though unlike the passenger pigeon and the Rocky Mountain locust, there are still large pockets of wild bison around, just not as numerous as before the 1800s.

[@thomastolbert6184]

Yada,where?

[@Master_Yoda1990]

@@thomastolbert6184 never been to Yellowstone?

[@donnievance1942]

Not exactly what I'd call large pockets. There are a few thousand in Yellowstone and Badlands National Park in South Dakota and an area in northern Alberta (Wood Buffalo National Park) with maybe 20,000 or so. That's pretty much it, with a few tiny herds scattered around the west, mostly commercial establishments.

[@Master_Yoda1990]

@@donnievance1942 you forget Custer State Park, I'd say those are large sustainable pockets. My point was that wild bison aren't extinct. If you wanna nit-pick, then be my guest.

[@e.miller8943]

In about 2000-2001 we had a swarm east of Dallas,TX. The locust ate the grass and shrubbery in residential areas for about a week. The weather conditions must have been perfect.

[@drakejohnson5386]

When it comes to the potential ecological damage we could inflict by either removing mosquitos entirely or altering what diseases that can harbor, an analysis on what damage did the loss of locust did to north america can guide our decision on if we should remove mosquitos or alter them forever.

[@darrenc3439]

You cant damage the ecology.....It gives not two sh!ts if a mosquito is around or not, if there is an open niche there, it will be filled by another species. Hell, You cant remove the mosquito even if you wanted to.

[@drakejohnson5386]

@@darrenc3439 after the mass adoption of the CRISPER gene editing technology, there have been debates on if we should modify or eliminate mosquitos, as mosquitos is the creature that has killed the most humans in the history of the species. But we don't know what unforseen consequences would occur if we edited the species in a way that is passed on through breeding. You bring up an interesting possibility, that if mosquitoes die, a new species could take it's place and be even deadlier.

[@thomasrogers8239]

I learned about this growing up and didn't realize at first that it wasn't common knowledge. It's really fun relearning something that you haven't talked about in a long time.

[@randmorf]

I had heard/read that the Rocky Mountain Locust were killed off by an early freeze one winter maybe 100 or more years ago.

[@passageone8339]

In 2008 or 2009 there were swarms in a Pueblo I visited in N. New Mexico. I recall the children picking them up and putting them in 2L bottles. The locusts ate every green leaf in the Pueblo and were always underfoot as we walked between adobes. Does anyone remember that?

[@user-fd1mv8dl9q]

On the topic of swarming insects, I recall that in Louisiana during my youth, swarms of crickets would “invade” the town. I distinctly recall the unpleasant crunch of stepping on them when walking at night, the smell of decaying crickets, and seeing them obscure shop windows much like frost in the colder climes.

[@TigerHawk709]

What I heard in this video: Locusts are just Grasshoppers that use Banding on a large scale; The reason there are no Locusts in North America anymore is because humans forced the Meta to change so that Banding wasn't a thing anymore. Did I get that about right?

[@TragoudistrosMPH]

Sweet nostalgia haha. I'll drown my sorrows in boozecube!

[@EJayMD-11]

I think this will be one of those animals that just pop up again one day, and scientist will be like "woops" lol.

[@WavyHippie420]

They did summer of 2019 from Nevada to Texas... So we jus forgot about that huh... 2020 has erased everything prior I guess

[@jmacd8817]

@@WavyHippie420 we had locusts out in California around 2010 or so. I have nonclue what species,.or if they are native or invasive. Ut we had em!

[@WavyHippie420]

@@jmacd8817 I know I'm from Los Angeles, lived in Vegas since 2011 til I came to Texas... And they still exist in North America so I don't know what they're talking about🤷🏾‍♂️

[@jmacd8817]

@@WavyHippie420 I just moved to Texas, and holy crap, no locusts, but dozens of different grasshoppers. Evil little garden eating mofos!

[@WavyHippie420]

@@jmacd8817 aren't they? I'm in west Texas, and these lil monsters are Lucifer's pets for sure

[@karlhoffman5290]

I live in the corn belt. Northern IL southern Wisconsin. This year we finally have grasshoppers again since I was in highschool 90s

[@uni4rm]

Laura Ingalls Wilder book "On the Banks of Plum Creek" they have what they called "grasshopper winter" when the local residents could tell the weather change usually led to a swarm of locusts. They wiped out all the crops, laid eggs and either swarmed away or died.

[@kkgc5760]

4:30 "the species was gone!" 2020: Hold my viruses

[@travishanson166]

Can't speak for the rocky mountain locust, but there are certainly locusts in the northern plains today. They don't typically swarm, but can be found quite often.

[@patfranks785]

I'm 59 and still love learning new things. If we haven't noticed anything negative about them being gone by now, I think we are OK.

[@user-pn4jw5ik3o]

How Farmers Accidentally Killed Off North America's Butterflies

[@oculusnomadslosttribe5672]

@T2¢ Man you nailed it...as a kid I used to see them everyday during certain times of the year..now days I’ll see one ever so often and I’m taking a picture as proof that they still exist..but the variety is gone at least in my area...crazy🤨

[@angeloevans26]

@@oculusnomadslosttribe5672 same with ladybugs

[@mikeries8549]

If you want to see butterflies and bees grow tall zinnias. Grow some lupine flowers too. Sunflowers attract birds and bees like crazy. Build it and they will come.

[@MrEmman12]

When I was a kid we used to catch huge locusts in the field between our apartment complex, I haven’t seen a grasshopper/locust in like 15 years

[@jamesrogalski2085]

Apparently you don't live in South West Michigan...

[@AZREDFERN]

We had a swarm in Rapid City, SD in 2012. Spend 10 miles on the highway and the entire front of my truck was covered in guts. Riding a motorcycle was impossible. They were everywhere and flying long distances. Hadn’t seen them since.

[@jameshotz1350]

I just saw one in my back yard, so they aren't gone, the locust hibernates for 7 or more years , and when conditions are just right they appear.

[@markwoll]

Next cover the collapse of the avian flyways. As recently as the late 1970's we would see huge flocks of birds in the spring and fall traveling up the east coast of the US. Murmurations miles in length, they have all but vanished.

[@firethylacine1976]

It's so sad how our normal modern concept of "nature" is really just the remains of what nature used to be.

[@bltsammich9760]

I can pretty much guess it is human driven

[@KillerChickn]

@@firethylacine1976 We are part of nature.

[@markwoll]

@@baronvonslambert Yes, I see several bird populations over wintering when they used to migrate. Robins for one. The winter population in the mid Atlantic region is much higher now than even 30 years ago. There was a population crash of Corvids ( Crows and Blue Jays most obviously )in the 90's. It was supposed to be West Nile virus related. Some human cause, some climate, some 'natural' causes.

[@paulford9120]

YES! I used to watch those "rivers of birds" flying by at certain times of the year as I walked to school. It took like 10 minutes for the entire flock to pass by.

[@TheTexas1994]

2020 gonna bring the locusts back to North America

[@alimodz6253]

I wouldn't be surprised

[@512TheWolf512]

And they would be preaching communism, while burning cities

[@madelinegolding4969]

2020 be like 👀 👁👄👁

[@zebulongriggs4986]

Just go walk around Purdue University. So many grasshoppers there that they start to swarm. Not migratory level swarming, but still will leave you no visibility on your windshield if you drive through them.

[@BothHands1]

sounds about right. and probably a giant meteor by december as well.

[@jockellis]

In 1974, Waycross, GA was covered with green grasshoppers. It was pretty horrible.

[@keulron2290]

I see this as an absolute win.

[@AveryMilieu]

Locusts were BIRD FOOD. When you wonder what happened to the birds, remember they lost a part of their food chain.

[@pauljs75]

Or it could have been birds responsible. Invasive species from Europe like starlings or the house sparrow. Maybe they had a taste for locusts the native birds didn't care for.

[@bone8352]

There is a gated community in Florida called The Villages. They spray year round for mosquitos and gnats and you hardly see any flying bugs there. There also are almost no birds in the entire community that live in the area. The are a rare sight.

[@Bitsyboo05]

bone8352 Not true, I drive in The Villages every week and the birds are fine and abundant.

[@bone8352]

@@Bitsyboo05 I go visit every summer and yeah they will be in the sky but I've never scene any hanging out or in people's yards.

[@geraldfrost4710]

Locusts were an aphrodisiac to the birds, and without them they lost the urge to mate. One percent of the eggs would pass through the bird's digestive tract, and that's the exact acidity that the eggs needed to hatch. Thus the two species, dependent as they were upon each other, became extinct. Gimme grant money.

[@vanpenguin22]

There is a wonderful invention called "The Mosquito Magnet " It emits a small stream of co2 which the mosquitoes are attracted by and sucks them into a mesh bag inside the device capturing many thousands of the damb things before the bag needs emptied. If everybody in suburbia who had an outdoor gas grill also had a mosquito magnet, it would be lights out for those little blood suckers

[@MartintheTinman]

460 dollars, most likely US. So nearly a thousand Aussie and they're out of stock. I'll just eat inside

[@maxr.mamint8580]

@@MartintheTinman Go with a daily vitamin B-complex supplement. Mosquitos HATE it. Whenever I'm outside if any mosquitos are around, I'm their favorite feast and the bites swell up huge and itch something unGodly. I discovered the vitamin B trick camping on a sandbar in a swamp (I'm in South Carolina). I had taken two vitamin B tablets, and while where were mosquitos everywhere - and landing on me as well; I got not one single bite. It blew my mind that I had no mosquito bites, so I looked into it. Couldn't find much information, but I've "tested" the theory myself since, and it works like a charm every single time.

[@MartintheTinman]

@@maxr.mamint8580 . Everyone in my family gets lumps from mosquito bites except me. They also get sick from opioids and I don't. As long as I don't scratch my bites they are only itchy for a short time. I get vitamin B from Vegemite but I probably can't eat enough Vegemite to stop mosquitos biting

[@stevenswitzer5154]

And so too go the bats.

[@vanpenguin22]

@@stevenswitzer5154 That's an excellent point.

[@melelconquistador]

Colorado had a lot of bugs this year. This includes great varieties of grasshoppers. Although, no luck with many locusts.

[@AhJodie]

Thank you.

[@williamlong8859]

Surprised you didn't really include the seagulls that migrated to Utah ending a locust plague there in the 1848

[@JIKwood]

I was expecting it as well

[@Emophiliac2]

They were crickets, not locusts. So, no reason to mention them.

[@paulford9120]

2020: Wait, I forgot the locusts? Hold my beer...

[@CyberiusT]

It happened - just not to the US.

[@martinphilip8998]

One of my favorite college texts showed a picture of a hopper dozer. Imagine a bulldozer with a huge blade. At the base of the bucket was oil or diesel fuel. The grasshoppers would be stirred to flight, some of them hitting the blade and getting doused, then burned later.

[@bloozswami]

In 1978 while playing in a baseball league in Phoenix, Az., a night game was temporarily stopped by a really fast invasion of millions of grasshoppers. They blocked out the field lights. Our centerfielder went nuts trying to evade the bugs. It actually had us all on wonderment.

[@troyezell5841]

Good job farmers! You work hard to provide food and your hard work helps to mitigate the threat of pests. 👍

[@ValeriePallaoro]

And not long after they created the dust bowl catastrophe that heralded the Great Depression and the second world war that followed on from that. Good job farmers. Nicely done.

[@imaboisir7227]

@@ValeriePallaoro yeah honestly that dust bowl was a big L on their part.

[@seanrathmakedisciples1508]

@@ValeriePallaoro kzbin.info/www/bejne/m32ac3x9o89niaM

[@kevinshipman7668]

I guess your food just magically appears in your fridge

[@biggumstevens1784]

@@ValeriePallaoro And before that the Kahokian native population depleted the top soil to the point 90% of them died off and lead to the extinction of countless plant and animal species. Quit trying to blame white men for everything.

[@akumaking1]

So how else have we accidentally make the earth better?

[@isaackarjala7916]

How does that make the earth better.....

[@crusigala]

@@isaackarjala7916 Less famine and damage to crops, saving us millions of dollars.

[@Magic-Conk]

People like you are destroying the Earth

[@Aeronor2001]

@@isaackarjala7916 He didn't really go into what locust swarms do, but check out some videos or articles. They consume basically everything in their path, it's pretty horrific. Perhaps they did serve some role, but they invariably made many plants' and animals' lives hell.

[@isaackarjala7916]

@@crusigala that's good for people. That's not their claim or my question.

[@wontnotawill1356]

I have no idea why or how it happened, but around a decade ago I found a single dead locust in the middle of Phoenix AZ. I was a minimum of 20mi from the nearest agriculture.

[@molly1949]

In 1958, Philadelphia pa..I was 9, I saw a huge black cloud.. massive my uncle said locusts, they ate every leaf off every tree and devasted anything green.

[@samcast1676]

The locust went to hell, that's where they went.

[@queencleopatra007]

Its where they belong

[@Carolus_Tsang]

Time to send the mosquitoes and fleas down there as well. They've done enough harm to humanity. As the current masters of this planet, I see fit to condemn mosquitoes and fleas down there as well.

[@bone8352]

@@Carolus_Tsang Yes we are the almighty Gods of this planet, we deem blood drinking bugs as unworthy for this hallowed ground. I smite thee with the triple combo of the Holy Spirit!

[@amewarashi5770]

You mean *back* to hell. I've read some biblical level descriptions of the old locust swarms. They were several states wide at times. They turned day into night for weeks, and everything green, into heaps of reeking bug carcasses. Whole American families starved to death in surprising numbers. There are a few books about it worth reading, and it's weird they never mention it in schools or anywhere really but yeah, wow, it was bad.

[@jerrynewberry2823]

Thank you DDT!

[@abdallahmanasrah2317]

It was mostly tilling and irrigation that did the job

[@jerrynewberry2823]

@@abdallahmanasrah2317 if you say so, I was around in the 50s when locusts devistated the mid West and Texas. I remember DDT doing the job. Then someone said it was bad. Probably the mice in California, which are prone to cancer when they inject 50 times an exposure amount. You believe what you want.

[@abdallahmanasrah2317]

@@jerrynewberry2823 ever heard of the great kanssas plague? kzbin.info/www/bejne/fKnUmHWNrbGNl5I

[@jerrynewberry2823]

@@abdallahmanasrah2317 your education seems to come from the internet. Mine doesn't. Wickapedia is not the last word of anything. Please visit a library. It will be eye opening.

[@abdallahmanasrah2317]

@@jerrynewberry2823 great advice. One can only see a 100 years, read about 10k. I do, I hope you too do. That wasn't wikipedia though, it was a review of scientific and history books.

[@heavymetalbassist5]

grasshoppers are wild. Occasionally a huge 3 incher makes it in my greenhouse , and mow down hundreds of seedlings

[@ellenbryn]

The Dust Bowl was like the ghosts of the locusts taking their revenge...

[@Happyfoam-lw3yt]

I don't understand. I live in Las Vegas and two years ago a plague of locusts swept through the city. It lasted about a week and the cloud was dense enough to block out any electric light. By the time it was over, there were mounds 3~4 feet tall surrounding every street lamp across the metropolis. I'm no scientist, but what he's describing sounds awfully close to what I experienced.

[@linkstertv5382]

I remember this it was crazy

[@TheBandit7613]

@@linkstertv5382 I don't remember it.

[@linkstertv5382]

@@TheBandit7613 it happened

[@TheBandit7613]

@@linkstertv5382 I believe you, I just can't figure out why I don't remember. Especially with my job. I repair street lights, along with other things. Maybe I was on vacation. I know sometimes those big moths get heavy. And every year it seems a different insect kind of peaks.

[@richardstephens5570]

In 2019 Las Vegas was hit by a swarm of pallid-winged grasshoppers.

[@M4gl4d]

"We don't know what we lost" I do, we lost the locusts. Be thankful. Really, hippies that say that everything that is natural is good have never had a tick, or an intestinal parasite, or any dangerous bug bite them. Just because something is natural it doesn't means its good. Tsunamis are natural, are they good? Black widow spiders are natural, would you pet one and let it bite you? I hope mosquitoes or ticks get exterminated next.

[@JIKwood]

Yeah. Look up "miracle of the gulls" and you'll see why they were a bother

[@Sara3346]

Black widows are pretty docile ad far as my understanding goes.

[@Chestyfriend]

@@Sara3346 I don't think comparing black widows to locusts is fair. Black widows cause some incidental deaths, but locusts cause complete devastation leaving thousands to die from starvation.

[@Sara3346]

@@Chestyfriend I didn't make the initial comparison nor did I call it fair, if anything I disputed it.

[@ValeriePallaoro]

Farmers benefited from the absence of locusts, however not long after they created the dust bowl catastrophe that heralded the Great Depression and the second world war that followed on from that. We are the least natural thing on this earth. So, your point is invalid. And childishly implying that people with interest in this are hippies is time wasting too. Dragonflies dine on mosquitoes. I'm happy to deal and have dragonflies in my life. Get a grip, fellow.

[@AlixL96]

i want to know more about that freaky transformation that happens in a matter of hours, i feel like that's the fastest anatomical change i've ever heard of happening in an animal.

[@Cyclopsided]

In Arizona, the mohave valley of the Colorado river, when i was a child in the 90s we had multiple locust plagues. They would get so bad that we could barely drive. The swarms covered everything and made the roads slick with their dead bodies getting hit by cars. we still have small populations there every year where i grew up. They look very similar to that rocky mountain one, not like the later ones showed.

[@teondrehughes670]

My phobia see's nothing wrong, I see this as an absolute win.

[@budmeister]

tell that to animals that eat them to survive.

[@Wedoitall71]

Agreed!

[@davidsi5376]

Well now we all get to miss out on Locust hamburgers! 😢😢😢🤤🤤🤤

[@AceChampElite]

Return the slab!

[@deadaccount2968]

Or suffer the consequences...

[@stevenmcgillivray9283]

Awesome!

[@stevedyoutube]

Locusts returned in Spring, 2021. Did you do a video talking about this one with the 2021 update?

[@mattd5719]

They migrated to Canada. The most I have ever seen in years was this summer.

[@weldmaster80]

When will you cover the endangered Rocky mountain oyster?

[@lukeazks4685]

It's demise will be brought about by beyond burgers.

[@jennyjen7000]

Ew lol

[@finnthroop8301]

I like the detail without hate for the farmers

[@Nabraska49]

Extremely cold weather usually reduces there numbers.. but also Monsanto has probably had a part to play.

[@WavyHippie420]

Well here in Texas, there are many locusts... We jus had an uprising towards the end of 2019... From Nevada to Texas... I drove through em for 20 hours.... They're are some outside my house as we speak... They're still here, believe that we didn't wipe out nothing

[@arjunyg4655]

These are a different species maybe? He mentions it in the video.

[@WavyHippie420]

@@arjunyg4655 maybe but they're were swarming all the same

[@karvald]

Then, everything changed when the Locust Nation attacked.

[@rroneuspyludoneus8162]

It was the greatest test ever faced by the Ultramarines Chapter of Space Marines when they confronted and defeated the first invasion of the Milky Way Galaxy by the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Behemoth, bringing an end to the First Tyrannic War.

[@mcsmith7606]

My mother-in-law spent her last days in an elder care facility in Gainesville, Fl . Her garden area outside her window was invested with these pests. So Gainesville Fl sill had them six years ago.

[@jamesverner9132]

I see this as an absolute win