The locust plague is the most crucial link in the history of human disasters.
Even if the technology is developed enough today, we still do not have effective means to curb their destruction.
There have been many examples of countries destroyed by locust plagues in history, and the United States almost became one of them in 1874.
In late July 1874, a 12-year-old farm girl named Lillie Marcks suddenly felt that the sun was dimming, and she looked up to find that the Kansas sky was being shrouded in a strange "black cloud."
A roar ensued, and before she could react, an army of locusts descended on her town.
Later, according to the girl Lillie Marcks, the locusts at that time were like:
"Gray-green screens moving between the sun and the earth," and then these "things" swooped down from the clouds like hail and crashed into my house, trees, and fences. ”
Another kid in Jefferson County, Kansas, pumped water from the well and exclaimed, "Here they are!" There are also in the sky! ... The yard is also full of these annoying things. ”
"I've never seen a sight like this before. This morning, when we look up at the sun, we can see millions of large particles that look like snowflakes. ”
Settlers in Edwards County, Kansas, said the same thing.
In fact, that summer, it wasn't just Kansas that year that there were a lot of locust witnesses. There were also many people in Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and present-day Oklahoma and Texas who witnessed this moment of disaster.
It seems that the locust plague has eroded most of the territory of the United States.
The peasants tightened their trouser legs with ropes and covered the wellhead with sackcloth, the only precious resource they could guard.
The locusts soon swept away the crops, and every leaf on the trees, the wool on Mianyang's body, even the harnesses on the horses, and the paint on the carriages.
The locusts on the fence were like waves, wave after wave, piled up a foot deep. They continued to feast for several days, and some farmers' clothes were not spared.
Although many livestock could have a full meal during a locust infestation, the farm also lit bonfires to stop these invaders.
But for the 120 billion locust army, it can only be a drop in the bucket.
"Taxonomically, locusts and grasshoppers are the same. When these insects have non-migratory and non-destructive populations of low density, they are considered grasshoppers. When they are both migratory and destructive, and when the "population" density is high and relatively dense, they are considered locusts. ”
Says entomologists in Missouri.
Rocky Mountain Black Locust
In 1874, locusts caused about $200 million in crop losses in the Great Plains of the Central United States. They had to stall migration plans in the west and force many farmers to return to the east or continue to move west.
This phenomenon was common in the border areas of the time.
There is also direct evidence that the main perpetrator of the 1874 Locust Plague in the United States was the Rocky Mountain Black Locust, known as the "Devil of the Mountains".
The Rocky Mountain Black Locust is typically found on the dry eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, from the southern tip of british Columbia woodlands all the way to western Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and Dakota.
As summer temperatures rise, the larvae hatch from a year-old egg pod located underground. And because 1874 coincided with the drought, the demise of natural vegetation gave birth to the opportunity to migrate to a wider, more fertile area to feed their stomachs.
In July of that year, about 120 billion locusts landed a 100-mile (160-kilometer) wide flight belt in Kansas. By the fall, their destructive power had not diminished and had spread to Texas.
It has to be said that the impact of this locust plague on the United States is far-reaching and huge.
With the Homestead Act of 1862, the end of the Civil War of 1865 and the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869, the American westward expansion movement was in full swing.
With a vision of the future, these immigrants began to seek a new life in the free land. They don't mind the harsh soil and poor living environment.
But the locust plague that arrived as scheduled was like a brick, waking up their dream of building a new home.
In fact, as early as early 1873, the peasants of the Great Plains had already suffered an economic panic. Between 1873 and 1874, the weather changed dramatically, with the winters unusually cold and the beginning of the year as dry as early summer.
Although local migrants still hold a positive attitude, looking for any signs of possible rainfall.
But who would have thought that what awaited them was the nightmare of their lives.
In 1874, at the turn of spring and summer, the hot and dry conditions provided ideal breeding conditions for the Rocky Mountain Black Locust. As Kansas pioneer Susan Proffitt wrote:
"The grass seems to have withered, the cattle are bunched near the creek and the wellhead, and there seems to be no air to stir the leaves on the trees"... "Nature seems to be still, and then they come..."
In some places, swarms of locusts block the sun for up to six hours.
When locusts descend, they cover all the shrubs and vegetation, and sometimes their total weight almost breaks part of the limbs of the same kind.
They squashed and devoured corn stalks and harvested wheat fields. Even more abhorrent, they eat only the most juicy part of the wheat, leaving the rest on the ground to rot.
They also invaded peasant houses, cleaned up the barrels and cupboards inside, and greedily sucked up anything with juice in wood or metal utensils.
"I was wearing a white and green dress. The locusts lay on top of me and ate all the green stripes on that skirt before I dared to get up..."
Locust survivor, Kansan Adelheit Viets, wrote in his diary.
According to maps made in Missouri, the locust plague of 1874 spread from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to western Iowa, Minnesota and Missouri, and central Texas.
The magnitude of the disaster's impact has been magnified in remote areas, where local settlers have little food reserves and few neighbours can help.
More precisely, a report published in 1874 showed that only one in ten households had enough food to survive the coming winter.
To avoid starvation, many desperate settlers, especially those in western Kansas and Nebraska, abandoned their homestead claims and their dreams to return to the East to earn a living.
By the end of 1874, Kansas alone had lost as much as a third of its population. At the same time, westward migration to the plains decreased by as much as 20 percent.
However, debt has prevented some people from leaving, while others have been reluctant to give up their investment in time and energy.
For example, a Kansasian who experienced a locust plague once wrote:
"I've lost everything here, and I'm somehow confident that I'm going to win everything here again." "My children are buried here, and my bond here is stronger, and we will continue to do so." ”
Those who choose to hold out will turn to federal and regional governments for help, or borrow money from family and friends, or even mortgage their land.
But not everyone has done it.
In June, a St. Louis Republican reporter released the following report, the so-called "Year of the Locust Report":
"In the past week, we have seen some families who have no surplus food. In fact, since last fall, families who have no food to eat have been helpless except for what their neighbors have given them. ”
"In one case, a family of six was unable to continue for six days due to a lack of food and ended up starving to death... From the current indications, in the next four months we will be building many graves with the words "STARVED" inscribed on them..."
Despite local advocacy for the consumption of fried locusts to feed themselves, it seems that farmers are still unable to face these terrifying-looking insects.
Others have made vacuum cleaner-like equipment to catch locusts on railways and farms, but they still can't stop them.
In the end, the U.S. Army had to react — they began reaching out to families in remote areas and providing maximum help. During the harsh winter of 1874-75, soldiers distributed thousands of major garments, boots, shoes, blankets and other items, as well as nearly 2 million rations, to families in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado and Dakota.
But in the spring of 1875, trillions of locust eggs laid the previous summer began to hatch, and the ground was covered with squirming, struggling nymphs. The farmers' worst fears have occurred.
Fortunately, a timely blizzard and strong frost killed most of the immature insects, giving farmers time to replant their crops.
And so on, the good news kept coming.
After the locust plague of 1874, the population decline did not last long. In Kansas, for example, the population was 364,400 in 1870, but rose to 996,100 in 10 years.
In order to stop the locust plague, Nebraska passed a special Locust Law in 1877. It requires every able-bodied man aged 16 to 60 to work at least two days a week and destroys eggs when locusts have not yet hatched, addressing the root cause of locust plagues. Slackers will face a $10 fine.
That same year, Missouri also launched a "locust harvest" campaign in March, with the government offering a $1 per bushel locust, which diminishes with each month: 50 cents per bushel in April, 25 cents in May, and 10 cents in June.
It was not until the 1880s that farmers fully recovered from the locust plague. They already have enough grain and grass and the ability to transport some of it to Ohio farmers who are experiencing flooding.
Although the United States seems to have been freed from heavy natural disasters, this locust plague is indeed a very profound lesson for Americans. It also more or less extinguished their fanatical westward dreams.
After all, in the struggle with nature, human beings are always the smallest one.