STRANGE DAYS
- A wet spring in LasVegas,
Nevada, has spawned hordes of
grasshoppers so large they’re
showing up on theweather
radar. It looked as if there
were two storms – one north
of LasVegas (thatwas actual
rain) and another rightover
the city; but the second one
wasn’t moving asrain normally
would, andwas actually massive
swarms ofgrasshoppers. In
late July they covere d the city,
often concentrated around the
Vegas lights andgreen spaces.
Practically the whole city is
covere d in ultraviolet lights, the
most iconic being the Sky Beam
shooting up from thepyra mid-
shaped Luxor. Many videos on
social media showgrasshoppers
swarming around the Sky Beam.
The pallid-winged
grasshoppers are from the
Acrididæfamily andrange from
Argentina to British Columbia,
but are concentrated in North
America, particularly in desert
ecosystems. Between 1952 and
1980 therewere six grasshopper
outbreaks in Arizona, one
of which lasted twoyears.
Outbreaks arerecorded in
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and
California. In this instance, the
invasion was associated with
unusually highrainfall around
Vegas and to the south.The
city averages 5in (13cm) ofrain
per year. From January toJune
the same amount ofrain fell,
equalling the annual total in the
fi rst half of theyear. There’s not
much residents can doabout
the grasshoppers, which are
harmless. Officials discourage
the use of pesticides, as those
insects killed will simply be
replaced within 24 hours.[CNN]
28 July; forbes.com, 29July 2019. - Around the same time,a
swarm offl ying ants invaded
Britain.What looked like
ordinaryrain cloudswere in fact
alive. The antswere so dense
weather satellites picked them
up asraindrops.This insect
invasion is an annualswarming
event, commonly known as
‘Flying Ant Day’, although it’s
more like a season, occurring
at any time betweenJune and
the start of September, with
a peak that lasts severa l days.
After a period of hot and humid
weather, the black garden ants
(Lasius niger) take to the skies
in dr oves, cluttering the horizon,
fl ying into homes and mouths,
and distracting tennis players at
Wimbledon.While “Flying Ant
Season” is usually considered
a nuisance, it is also hugely
beneficial to the ecosystem.The
ants are a vital source offood
for birds and theway that they
tunnel and dig their nests has
profound implicationsfor soil
quality.sciencealert.com, 28July
2019.- Meanwhile inYemen, desert
locusts inundatedrebel-held
Sana’a and surroundingregions,
devastatingfarms but also
providing a bumper crop of
this Yemeni delicacy. Crowds
chased theswarms of locusts
using special nets. Men stood
on rooftops with large nets,
scooping the insects out of the
air. Some people catch locusts at
night when they’re notfl ying,by
throwing scarves or other large
pieces of cloth to trap them and
thensweeping them into bags
using shovels or their hands.This
was the second majorswarm to
hit theYemeni capital inrecent
weeks, with another passing
through inJune. Locals and
traders said that locustswere
a goodremedyfor numerous
health problems, aswell as
being a good source of protein.
“We know from ourfathers and
grandfathers that locusts are
used to treatvarious conditions
such as diabetes,” said a man in
Sana’a central market. “Its taste
is delicious. Ifyou eat one locust,
you will end upwanting to eat
fi ve,” said Sana’aresidentWadai
al-Nawdah. “Iwalk every day
after breakfast tofi nd locustsfor
dinner. I ha ve become addicted.”
Farmers, however, are less
enthusiastic.The famed Yemeni
grape farmers in the area who
cultivate the country’s best vines
said they had been particularly
affected. An adult locust can
eat its bodyweight in fresh
vegetationevery day andeven
a smallswarm can consume
enoughfood for 35,000 people
in 24 hours. Once theyswarm,
they become highly mobile and
are able tofl y 150km (90 miles)
in a day. With a female locust
able to lay 300 eggs in her short
life, aswarm can quicklygrow to
hundreds of millions of insects
and measure miles across.
This year has seen severa l
majorswarms across theregion
after twocyclones in May and
October lastyear brought heavy
rains to a large area of Saudi
Arabia’s Empty Quarter, one
of the main locust breeding
grounds.Three generations
were born in a short time before
theywere detectedby ground
monitoring teams. Swarms have
hit Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Iran,
Jordan and Egypt and have even
crossed to Sardinia. Locusts
breed and gather anywhere
across millions of hectares
of desert from Morocco to
Pakistan.JerusalemPost, 3June;
thenational.ae (UAE), 29July
2019.GLOBALSWARMING
A plague ofgrasshoppers in LasVegas, clouds offl ying ants in Britain, locusts on the menu inYemen
ABOVE: Grasshoppersswarm around a light a few blocks off the Strip in LasVegas,
on 26 July. The hopping hordes are the result of a unusually wet spring in the area.BRIDGET BENNETT / AFP / GETTY IMAGES
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