DONUT SWARM

25 June 2020 | Propeller Heads Newsletter

Well it wouldn’t be 2020 without a swarm of locusts, right? India is currently dealing with the worst swarm of locust the country has seen in 30 years. Now, you’re thinking, “Wow, a swarm of locust sounds awful.” But don’t worry, it’s much worse! This is a swarm of desert locust, which are somehow much more aggressive than normal ravenous grasshoppers. These locusts can fly roughly 90 miles a day and eat their body weight in vegetation every day. Now, it’s only 2 grams but some of these swarms can have over 80 million adults in just 1 square kilometer. Put away your calculators; we did the math. That’s over 350,000 lbs of vegetation eaten in one day per square mile. Also, swarms can reach the billions in numbers. You’ll have to just use your imagination for that number. We don’t have enough fingers and toes here for that math. “What does this have to do with drones?”, you might be asking our editorial staff. Well dear reader, the Indian government has been using drones to spray insecticides along with fire trucks to slow down the swarm. In the two districts where they were deployed, they are seeing that about 70% of the locusts have been destroyed. Locusts also hate loud noises. If you’ve ever stood underneath a large multi-prop drone, you know it sounds like it’s own swarm!