the Hebrew Bible describes a plague of
locusts covering the ground and eating
everything in sight and in the thousands
of years since then they haven't really
let up locusts still routinely devastate
crops in many parts of the world
especially Africa and Asia in fact they
are thought to affect the food supply of
one out of 10 people in the world but
those Locust forms may be just as
unhappy about what they're doing as we
are because according to some
researchers a locust swarm is just a
bunch of insects fleeing for their lives
from one another
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locusts usually prefer to be on their
own but sometimes they get together with
other locusts kind of like college
students on spring break and set about
destroying everything in sight and local
storms are pretty complex with swarming
individuals undergoing changes in
behavior neurophysiology and even color
there can be millions of locusts in one
swarm and they can travel thousands of
kilometers stripping every leaf from
every plant that gets in their way but
they don't just eat plants they will
also eat each other which means that
swarms aren't just terrifying for people
they are also terrifying for the locusts
and even though Locust swarms have been
plaguing humans for thousands of years
we still don't really know why they
swarm what we do know is as the
population of locusts in a particular
area increases they lose their
preference for solitary living
scientists do have some theories
Regarding why and one of the best
supported has to do with their habit of
eating each other during swarms there's
a number of possible reasons why they
might do this insects are more
vulnerable to being eaten just after
molting so if there's a lot of molters
in the group that could encourage
cannibalism also when you're in a swarm
you have more opportunities for mating
which means you need lots of nutrients
which you can get from cannibalizing
other locusts according to researchers
this cannibalizing Behavior may actually
drive swarming at least the behavioral
elements in 2012 scientists decided to
create a computer model of swarming
locusts computer-generated locusts were
programmed to maintain a minimum
distance from other locusts but they
were also designed to respond to the
speed at which other computer-generated
locusts moved towards or away from them
the locusts Behavior could also adapt as
the simulation went on over multiple
Generations the locusts would accumulate
benefits when they approached other
locusts and they would accumulate costs
when they were approached by other
locusts so some developed behaviors that
made them more likely to get eaten While
others became more likely to do the
eating at low population densities the
computer generated locusts would spread
out and avoid each other when there were
more of them their Tendencies to Chase
and or avoid each other caused them to
all move in the same direction forming a
swarm so the avoidance behavior at low
densities and the swarming Behavior at
high densities may have the same general
purpose both behaviors help protect
individual locusts from being
cannibalized if this is a good model of
real-life Locus Behavior it means that
all the agricultural destruction that
follows a locust swarm might not be so
much the purpose of the Swarm as a mere
side effect so basically humans and
locusts could be saved from a lot of
trouble if Locus could just embrace the
power of friendship research from 2023
though suggests it may not all be kill
or be killed locusts may have a way to
protect themselves from other locusts
when they're swarming which might be why
swarms don't just eat themselves into
Oblivion before they can do any real
damage in the Swarm phase and only in
this form phase some locusts produce a
pheromone called phenol acetonitrile or
pan when scientists used genome editing
to remove an enzyme responsible for
making pan cannibalism in the Swarm went
up this means pan may be like a don't
eat me signal in other words locusts
that produce the chemical are less
likely to get eaten the research done so
far doesn't totally explain cannibalism
and storming Behavior but it's a good
start and it does show that there could
be a chemical way to end swarming by
countering pan or inducing locusts to
stop producing it for example at least
the researchers say they'd like to look
into it they think that this could stop
swarming behavior before it even starts
by making the locusts just eat each
other instead of every plant in the
vicinity not so great for the locusts
but I think at least 10 percent of
people out there would say it's a
strategy worth going for if you have a
young person in your life who enjoys
creepy crawlies like locusts they might
enjoy our spin-off Channel scishow kids
where we've talked about the creepiest
cave animals the biggest bugs and more
it's fun for kids and great for parents
and teachers because every episode uses
the Next Generation sign standards for
science teachers to best introduce
science to little Minds also we have a
robot rat it's good fun check it out at
youtube.com show kids and thanks for
watching
foreign
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