We’ve been served up many weird and wonderful things over the years from the dash cams that Russians commonly use to document their traffic disputes – a fleeting glimpse of
Bigfoot,
a 200 mph tire blowout in a GT-R, a road-rage
shovel-and-knife fight, a parking attempt so bad it
resulted in a rollover, something that
came from outer space, and
various other thrills and chills.
The latest dubious video delight from that other nuclear power, with whom we share
presidents who seem to have their own thing going on, is something we are truly glad we don’t share with them: A 21st-century plague of locusts, of Cecile B. DeMille proportions. There are millions, who knows, billions of them. There may be a little hyperbole to this next claim, perhaps not much, but the things are
said to be fist-sized. Holy Moses, that’s not an insect, that’s a bird.
This is in the republic of Dagestan, in the North Caucasus, where these eating machines have stripped millions of acres of farmland. “They devour everything. They destroy green fields, and there is nothing, just bare ground,” a local resident told Russian media.
Officials have declared a state of emergency, but here’s the thing – this happens every year. Last year’s infestation
covered an area of 270,000 square miles. Apparently locusts breed in the region’s hot and dry plains, which are getting more hospitable to the bugs
as climate change exacerbates the locust problem worldwide.
Watch the fascinating video above as the driver approaches what appears to be a cloud, or a dust storm – and then plows through what is in fact a wall of bugs. Imagine trying to get that off your grille and windshield. You get a sense of why Pharaoh knuckled under.
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