They may be the size and weight of your average paper clip, but locusts, in swarms, have the ability to devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage, which can lead to famine and starvation if a city is unprepared to deal with the loss of crop.
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00:00They may be the size and weight of your average paper clip, but locusts have the ability to
00:07devastate crops and cause major agricultural damage.
00:11These days, more videos are being shared on social media depicting swarms of locusts,
00:16including in India, Pakistan, China, and now more recently in the UAE.
00:21But why do these usually solitary and docile creatures change their habits at certain points
00:27of the year to come in a group of millions and cause destruction of vegetation?
00:33The ones we generally encounter in the UAE are the desert locusts.
00:37They're a notorious species, according to the National Geographic, and are mostly found
00:42in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
00:45Desert locust plagues can actually eat 423 million pounds of plants a day.
00:51Locusts are related to grasshoppers that have larger hind legs.
00:55This helps them bounce higher and further.
00:57There is a scary science to why they go from being calm solitary insects to gregarious
01:03hungry bugs.
01:05It all has to do with the weather conditions.
01:08Basically, locusts are looking for something to eat.
01:11They're herbivores, so will feed on crops and plants.
01:15During dry seasons, they end up in the same areas where the spaces still have some greenery
01:20left.
01:21Once the locusts are together, a hormone called serotonin is released into their body, which
01:27makes them hungry, social, and makes them move rapidly.
01:33If you've noticed, most videos of locusts in the UAE were taken after rainfall.
01:39That is because moist soil is a perfect environmental condition for locusts to reproduce.
01:45So they start laying eggs, and in less than a few weeks, these eggs hatch.
01:49The gregarious phase happens when locusts are near each other in large numbers.
01:54It isn't just a biochemical change, it also changes the insect physically.
01:59They become brighter in color, their brains become larger, and they have stronger hind
02:04legs, which increases their endurance.
02:07This is when you see them flying in groups of millions in the sky.
02:10But you don't have to worry about locusts hurting you.
02:14Locusts generally do not attack people or animals, and they also don't carry any diseases
02:19that harm humans.
02:20But what we should worry about is our planet.
02:23Some experts worry that locust plagues will worsen in a warming world, which means more
02:28crop damage and less food to feed the hungry.