No it's not about crickets - it's about locusts. Billions of locusts are on the march around the world. In Russia a swarm has destroyed 30,000 acres of wheat and in Utah an agricultural emergency has been declared after 'Mormon Crickets' caused $25 million of damage to crops.
In China hundreds of thousands of ducks are being flown to the north west of the country to combat the threat. Apparently they can eat 2kg of locusts a day. The ducks have been specially trained by government handlers to eat locusts.
This leads me to two thoughts. Will the import of ducks in China end the same way as the import of Giant Cane toads in Australia. They imported toads to eat harmful insects in the sugar cane fields. Unfortunately the toads didn't eat those insects but they really liked some of the insects that are beneficial (bees etc). Now they have a plague of cane toads. Just imagine a plague of giant ducks.
Secondly, will the fattening up of all these ducks bring the price of crispy duck down in my local chinese restaurant?
Are locusts common in the US?
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