In the late 19th century, locusts made large parts of the Great Plains nearly uninhabitable. They formed swarms the size of states, darkening the skies for days as they passed overhead, eating everything in their path - wool off sheep, clothes off people, whole fenceposts - becoming a trope in Westerns to this day. And then they went extinct, over just a few decades. Their sudden disappearance predated modern pesticides and industrial farming techniques, and weirdest of all, they weren’t a major pest before the 19th century. Where did they come from? Where did they go? Where did they come from...you know the rest.
How would YOU defend your farmstead against locusts?
Throw your annoying relatives and run - https://www.patreon.com/torscabinet/membership
Shooting them with the same rifle you used against the 30-50 feral hogs - https://x.com/parsons_tor
Proving you're tough by saying swear words like "fuck" and "crap" to them - https://www.reddit.com/user/MrSluds/
You're nice, you'd just let them gobble up your crops - https://www.instagram.com/tor.in.oregon/
Most of this episode is sourced from the book "Locust: the Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier" by Jeffrey Lockwood - read it at https://www.amazon.com/Locust-Devastating-Mysterious-Disappearance-American/dp/0465041671
I have no idea why I was so harsh on the "2020 sucks lol" trend in this video. It really did annoy me, but I think I was kinda shooting the messenger, since 2020 genuinely did suck. I wrote the script for this way back in 2022, when all that was still fresh in people's minds.