# Rooskie Biblical Plague?



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

http://videowall.accuweather.com/detail/videos/trending-now/video/4384966472001/swarms-of-locusts-trigger-state-of-emergency-in-southern-russia?autoStart=true

Regards, Mike


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

Ouch glad that's not happening here heard they eat everything


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

Only ever had one swarm of plague locusts here. That is one too many.

No they do not eat everything.

JD tractors are safe, locusts do not like them 

Locusts have preferences when it comes to diet. Love soft grasses and leaves like grape vines.

Do not like waxy or aromatic leaves but will progress to them once items more palatable are eaten out. For example, they ate orange tree leaves before mandarin, apricots before pears. Killed the apricot trees because leaves were eaten before trees built up their reserves.

Never touched eucalyptus tree leaves due to strong presence of eucalyptus oil. Literally dug into the ground chasing succulent root material on couch grass.

My neighbour thought he could spray the plague heavily and save his garden. WRONG.

He regretted the day he sprayed.

First result was his grapevines lasted about an hour longer than mine. The locust would land, start eating, consume poison and die but others were already on the leaves before the earlier arrival died. The process was repeated and repeated and repeated, get the idea.

Second result was drifts of dead locusts piled up around his house.

Third result was stench of rotting piles of locusts.

Fourth result was rake, shovel, wheelbarrow, and then the front end loader pressed into service to remove the decaying drifts.

Fifth result was my neighbour's firm resolve to not spray a locust plague ever again.

God's little creatures could in future just pass him by.

Notwithstanding the toll inflicted by his spray, the numbers leaving his house yard looked no different to that anywhere else.

Vehicle radiators would be clogged in no time, flawier grilles were useless, however shade cloth screens worked a treat. The shade cloth being more flexible stopped the locusts and let them fall down,

Windscreens had to be washed every few minutes and extra water was needed for a longer journey to wash the windscreen, clean gummed up wipers and replenish washer bottles .

Most of that plague came to die without breeding because the prevailing wind at the time carried them into a forest dominated by eucalyptus trees, which meant no feed so they perished. Locusts do not and apparently cannot fly against the prevailing wind.


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