Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness-Chapter 895 - 891 Locust Plague

Dark spots dense as a window screen appeared on the horizon, swelling into a massive cloud that expanded madly while slowly moving, instilling fear in the bewildered onlookers.

This style was surely too eerie.

Even Bi Fang, after observing with confusion, blurted out a word that caught everyone by surprise.

Locusts!

Upon hearing this word, countless viewers rapidly fired off comments.

[Locusts? Did I hear that right? Are these locusts?]

[Damn, do locusts still exist? I thought they were extinct]

[The guy ahead must live in a future century, how could there be no locusts?]

[It seems I've never seen this thing before]

[Definitely seen them, but probably mistook locusts for grasshoppers or crickets]

[Crickets, grasshoppers, how do you even differentiate them? I've never understood]

[Hey hey hey, is now the time to discuss biology? That thing's a huge swarm, it's already a disaster right????]

The refresh rate of the comments on the screen showed that the audience's confusion was immense, and their desire to express that was incredibly strong.

Moreover, if these were indeed locusts, their number was incredibly huge.

From the viewer's perspective, this could certainly be called a locust plague.

They won't eat people, will they?

In many people's eyes, locusts and piranhas were similar creatures. Once they gathered in groups, their passage left nothing behind but bare bones and skeletal remains everywhere.

"A locust plague is unlikely, it's just a large number, frightening in appearance only."

Bi Fang, facing the terrifying swarm of locusts, did not move but pulled an animal hide over, preparing to shield himself when needed.

[No way, this isn't considered a lot?]

[How terrifying would a real locust plague be?]

"The wave we're seeing now is rather mild, if it were severe, it wouldn't just look like netting."

"You'd see pitch black clouds, with density thousands of times what it is now, almost capable of blocking out the sun. That would be a real locust plague, leaving not a single blade of grass behind."

"When they land on the ground, they'd have no place to stand and would have to rest on top of each other, forming a second or even third layer of a flesh blanket."

People shuddered at the thought in their minds.

That's too horrifying, wouldn't stepping on it just squish into a green-brown mush?

"However, even encountering a locust plague, you don't have to worry about any danger to yourselves. Locust plagues only cause great destruction to plants and crops, they don't eat meat, so you don't have to worry about locusts leaving you as a pile of bones, that's impossible."

"If you do encounter them, just cover up with something, be careful not to get bitten or have them hit your eyes, other than that, there's basically no issue."

As Bi Fang spoke, he grabbed the animal hide next to him, draped it over himself and covered Harley.

The locust swarm seemed slow, but that was an illusion caused by their large target.

In fact, locusts moved very fast, capable of covering more than 100 kilometers a day, excluding feeding and resting time, which made their speed impressive.

"Kenya has always been a major disaster area for locust plagues, or rather, all of East Africa is a major disaster area."

Bi Fang's voice grew louder as the locusts approached, and the friction noise was already quite apparent.

"Kenya is close to the tropics, and the climate is not cold, so locust plagues can occur at any time. I remember since last November, Kenya has monitored 75 swarms of locusts."

"The largest swarm even formed a locust belt 60 kilometers long and about 40 kilometers wide, covering an area of approximately 2,000 square kilometers, with more than 100 million locusts per square kilometer!"

[Damn, that's exaggerated]

[Are you sure the unit is correct?]

[That's hundreds of billions!]

Because the coverage area is so large, it is very difficult to completely eradicate the locusts all at once.

They will spread everywhere. The African desert locusts not only ravage several countries in Africa but can also cross continents from East Africa to West Asia, South Asia, and Southern Europe and sometimes can even fly to South America, traversing much of Earth.

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With such a vast range, it's very hard to capture them all at once.

Moreover, the locusts lay eggs in the soil, so after the locusts on the surface are eliminated, the eggs in the soil hatch into new locusts after a while, forming a new wave of plagues, which is why locust plagues keep reappearing.

Even within the country, it took decades of long-term, resolute, and highly organized effective management to barely control them and prevent them from swarming, and even so, outbreaks still occur occasionally, not to mention in Africa, where organization is generally lacking.

During this train of thought, the locusts finally reached the group.

The first to appear was a locust that landed on the ground.

Bi Fang lifted a corner of the animal skin and saw it land on a blade of grass, quickly starting to devour it.

Soon, one locust after another fell like raindrops, nibbling on the grass just like their predecessors.

"In a real locust plague, the density of locusts is very high, reaching 5,000 per square meter, with a total weight of about 10 kilograms, and 3 million locusts per acre, totaling six tons of weight."

"In usual circumstances, in arid areas, it takes two or three acres of grain fields to produce one ton of straw, and it only takes 40,000 to 50,000 locusts to eat it all within an hour."

"If there's a locust plague, it can be done in less than a minute."

"The key point is, locusts consume more than their body weight each day, so they can devour the crops of an entire area in one day."

Bi Fang spoke as he watched.

He could still clearly feel, on his back, where the animal skin was, locusts landing but since there was no food, they hopped away.

Under such meticulous, close observation, Bi Fang and the audience also saw a few locusts inserting their tails into the soil.

Clearly, they were reproducing.

"Normally, locusts are solitary and are severely 'socially anxious,' avoiding physical contact with their kind, but under certain conditions, such as suitable living conditions and ample food, locusts reproduce happily, population density increases, and it becomes difficult to maintain distance from other insects."

"In such cases, if their hind legs are frequently touched, their insect brains will secrete serotonin and some other pheromones, and locusts then become gregarious; the entire process only takes a few hours."

"Note, only the hind legs can trigger this 'brainwashing' effect; other parts can't, and as for why, I'm not sure myself, it's still being studied."

"Gregarious locusts are a completely different thing, they even change their own structure, becoming more voracious and better at flying, while not better at reproducing, but the quality of the eggs improves, and the color changes from green to yellow or black."

"And the odor they emit continuously attracts other locusts to join the swarm. The swarm keeps growing, and when there isn't enough food, they begin a great migration, breeding along the way, attracting new locusts to join and, of course, consuming crops along the way."

"That's how a locust plague begins."

"The number we are dealing with now isn't very large, but as you can imagine, it might not be long before they become the 'black cloud' I mentioned."