Episode 47: The Locust Plagues of the Great Plains

In the 1870s locust swarms of biblical proportions descended onto the Great Plains, devouring everything in their path. Billions of locust blocked out the sun and devastated America’s agriculture, creating a national emergency unlike any other.

Sources include:

The book Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier by Jeffrey Lockwood

The Biogeosciences article “A probe into the different fates of locust

swarms in the plains of North America and East Asia” by G. Yu, D. Johnson, X Ki and Y. Li

The Kansas Historical Society article “Grasshopper Plague of 1874”

The BBC web article “Why Do Locusts Swarm?”