Locust: The Devastating Rise and
Mysterious Disappearance of the
Insect that Shaped the American
Frontier by Jeffrey A. Lockwood
Terror In The Sky
Imagine looking up to see an ominous black cloud on the horizon. Now
imagine your growing horror as you watch that cloud reveal itself as an
immense, miles-wide swarm of ravenous insects. In Locust, entomologist
Jeffrey A. Lockwood reveals the bizarre history of a bug responsible for
killing countless settlers on the American plains. First-hand accounts of
the Rocky Mountain locusts horrific depredations are reproduced in the
book, and Lockwood adds his own vivid reconstructions: We expect
grasshoppers and locusts to consume our gardens and fields, but when
these insects begin to feed on fabric and flesh something seems
demonically amiss.... Although the settlers may have been astonished by
the locusts voracity, they were appalled by the insects fierce cannibalism.

Swarms of locusts would touch down like tornadoes on homesteads and
farms, stripping away every growing thing and desperately eating other
insects in search of much-needed fat and protein. These hordes were
thought by many, including the Mormon settlers in Utah, to be divine
punishments, or at least signs from above. After describing the effects
this insect had on the American frontier, Lockwood delves into the
entomologic mystery of the locusts abrupt disappearance. Had they
become extinct? Or gone into hiding in some ecological refuge? When
Lockwood abandons history for science, his glee for his subject keeps the
book moving, albeit slower than in the first few chapters. --Therese
Littleton
Personal Review: Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious
Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier
by Jeffrey A. Lockwood
In the 19th century swarms of locusts regularly devastated the farms in the
West. Some wondered if it was divine punishment or personal failures. The
Federal Government established a commission to study the problem. A
few decades later the Rocky Mountain locust disappeared like an extinct
species. Jeffrey Lockwood decided to investigate this long-lost pest and try
to solve this ecological mystery. The `Introduction' describes a plague of
locusts in July 1875 Nebraska. One famous account is in Laura Ingalls
Wilder' book "On the Banks of Plum Creek". Once the locusts laid their
eggs a new plague would erupt the next year, and the year afterwards.
Chapter 1 tells of the diseases of the 19th century: cholera, lice and
typhus, parasitical worms. Famine and hunger were real threats. While
poultry feasted on locusts, this left their flesh and eggs inedible. Turkey
gorged themselves to death. The stench from dead locusts created a
problem. Locusts cannibalized the wounded or dead. The people were
terrorized by these events. Hot dry weather made locusts flourish (p.22).
The low-level jet stream spread them for hundreds of miles (p.23).
Chapter 4 tells of the methods used to destroy locusts. One of the simplest
was a ditch; the little locusts fell in but couldn't get out (p.54). Dead locusts
were used to fertilize root crops (p.55). Farmers diversified into corn, peas,
and beans from just the vulnerable wheat. Livestock grazed the grasslands
and denied these lands to locusts. Native birds consumed great numbers
of locusts (p.58). The Rocky Mountain locust was a national threat
because it caused economic havoc (Chapter 5). In those days Darwinian
theory blamed the victims for their problems (pp.65-67)! Some states gave
aid to the devastated counties (p.68). States offered a bounty for eggs and
nymphs (p.72), and called upon Washington for federal disaster funds
(p.75). The US Entomological Commission was funded to study the locust
problem (p.91). Increasing mobility of people also spread insects, weeds,
and pathogens. Chapter 7 tells of this Commission, who discovered the
uniqueness of the Rocky Mountain locust. Their destruction was best done
by destroying eggs (p.114). They also recommended the a diversified
agriculture. After the locusts disappeared they were replaced with

grasshoppers (p.130). They were as damaging as the dust storms of the
1930s. But the Rocky Mountain locust became extinct (p.137).
Chapter 9 tells how Boris Uvarov described the changes in locusts as
phases (pp.146-147). [Does this explain crime and violence in city life?]
The spread of alfalfa was followed by the disappearance of locusts (p.160).
Could a warming climate have ended the locusts (p.170)? Forested areas
were a barrier to locusts (p.177). The disappearance of bison was followed
by the disappearance of locusts (p.179). Chapter 11 tells of the
Grasshopper Glacier north of Yellowstone National Park. Modern science
could reveal unknown facts about locusts (p.184). Chapter 12 tells how
melting glaciers provide water for agriculture (p.210). Lockwood imagines
swarms of locusts carried north by winds. Falling temperatures then killed
them and encased them in ice (p.214). Curved lines across the width of
glaciers marked annual deposits of ice; this showed locusts going back
300 years, long before settlers arrived. A high degree of inbreeding and
narrowing genetic diversity leads to extinction (p.223). This was not the
case of the Rocky Mountain locusts. "Extinction happened suddenly and
without warning to a normal, healthy species" (p.224). There was a great
influx of people after the financial panic of 1873. Crop land displaced the
living areas of locusts. The irrigation of land by settlers destroyed locust
eggs (p.242). Alfalfa could not be eaten by young locusts (p.243). Plowing
and harrowing destroyed locust eggs (p.246). Grazing cattle affected
vegetation and streams (p.247). The resulting flooding killed locust eggs
(p.248), as did the rooting and tramping of cattle (p.249). People were also
menaced by financiers (p.253).
Lockwood's theory on the extinction was published in a 1990 journal.
Chapter 14 concludes with remarks on other species. Species are being
lost faster that the "normal" rate of extinction [not defined here]. Lockwood
wonders if the elimination of the Rocky Mountain locust could have been
"the result of unplanned, uncoordinated, and unintentional human activity"
(p.260)? No, the prior pages tell how this was accomplished. Could this
locust have survived in some refuge (p.261)? This is a very rich book that
can't be adequately summarized here. It is another argument against the
Darwinian theory of evolution which denies cataclysmal changes.
Lockwood seemed to have failed to research old publications from the
1880s-1900s to discover what they said about locusts. Arguing for an
unplanned extinction may have a political motive.
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