1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,080 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,520 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:13,480 Speaker 1: show that explores the ups and downs of everyday history. 4 00:00:15,320 --> 00:00:18,800 Speaker 1: I'm Gabeluesier, and in this episode, we're looking at the 5 00:00:18,920 --> 00:00:22,880 Speaker 1: day when weary Depression era Americans were forced to contend 6 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:34,040 Speaker 1: with a very different kind of crisis. The day was 7 00:00:34,120 --> 00:00:39,959 Speaker 1: July twenty sixth, nineteen thirty one. Massive swarms of grasshoppers 8 00:00:40,159 --> 00:00:45,560 Speaker 1: created chaos for Midwestern farmers. Driven by hunger, the insect 9 00:00:45,600 --> 00:00:50,080 Speaker 1: hordes swept through Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota. They laid 10 00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,760 Speaker 1: waste to millions of acres of crops, devouring the food 11 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,440 Speaker 1: supply of tens of millions of people in a single day. 12 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,760 Speaker 1: Nineteen thirty one one was a trying year for most Americans. 13 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:06,160 Speaker 1: The Wall Street Crash of nineteen twenty nine had plunged 14 00:01:06,200 --> 00:01:09,080 Speaker 1: the nation into a great depression, and two years on 15 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:13,640 Speaker 1: things were only getting worse. Millions of people lost their jobs, 16 00:01:13,800 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 1: their farms, their homes, and because of unemployment and economic inflation, 17 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:22,399 Speaker 1: many could no longer afford to feed their families. Some 18 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:25,560 Speaker 1: people broke into grocery stores and took what they needed 19 00:01:25,600 --> 00:01:29,960 Speaker 1: to survive. Others held hunger marches to protest the lack 20 00:01:30,040 --> 00:01:34,679 Speaker 1: of federal aid, and some simply starved to death. If 21 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:37,760 Speaker 1: that wasn't bleak enough, parts of the Midwest and the 22 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:40,520 Speaker 1: Great Plains were also in the midst of a severe 23 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:43,520 Speaker 1: drought that had already lasted more than a year with 24 00:01:43,600 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 1: no end in sight. Crops were withering in the field, 25 00:01:47,560 --> 00:01:51,520 Speaker 1: and dust storms were ravaging the landscape, threatening the nation's 26 00:01:51,560 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 1: food supply as well as the lives of those who 27 00:01:54,240 --> 00:01:59,080 Speaker 1: grew it. Midwestern farmers couldn't imagine how their situation could 28 00:01:59,120 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: get any worse, But then on July twenty sixth, nineteen 29 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:08,280 Speaker 1: thirty one, they got their answer. Swarms of grasshoppers locusts 30 00:02:08,320 --> 00:02:12,360 Speaker 1: in particular, have plagued mankind since the dawn of agriculture. 31 00:02:12,919 --> 00:02:16,720 Speaker 1: Descriptions of the voracious insects and their destructive power have 32 00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: been found in literature, sculptures, and artwork dating back thousands 33 00:02:20,880 --> 00:02:24,440 Speaker 1: of years, perhaps most famously in the Book of Exodus, 34 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,960 Speaker 1: where ancient Egypt is tormented by locusts as a punishment 35 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:31,600 Speaker 1: from God. If you've ever wondered what the difference is 36 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:35,840 Speaker 1: between grasshoppers and locusts, it really comes down to their behavior. 37 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:41,240 Speaker 1: Both insects belong to the same taxonomic group accridity, and 38 00:02:41,400 --> 00:02:45,639 Speaker 1: in fact locusts are a kind of grasshopper. What sets 39 00:02:45,639 --> 00:02:50,040 Speaker 1: a locust apart from its cousins is its tendency to swarm. 40 00:02:50,480 --> 00:02:55,600 Speaker 1: Like most grasshoppers, locusts generally live solitary lives apart from mating, 41 00:02:56,120 --> 00:02:59,600 Speaker 1: but under the right conditions they can transform into highly 42 00:02:59,680 --> 00:03:05,280 Speaker 1: social creatures with insatiable appetites. This usually occurs during a 43 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:10,000 Speaker 1: grasshopper population boom brought on by a drought. The insects 44 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:13,120 Speaker 1: eggs have a better chance of survival in dry soil, 45 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:15,880 Speaker 1: and the more of them that hatch, the more likely 46 00:03:15,960 --> 00:03:19,800 Speaker 1: it is for a swarm to develop. This phenomenon is 47 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:23,000 Speaker 1: triggered by a change of brain chemistry and certain species 48 00:03:23,040 --> 00:03:27,959 Speaker 1: of grasshopper, a combination of environmental factors and pheromones releases 49 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:31,280 Speaker 1: a wave of serotonin, causing the locusts to gather in 50 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:36,760 Speaker 1: large numbers and go into a feeding frenzy. Families in Iowa, Nebraska, 51 00:03:36,800 --> 00:03:40,960 Speaker 1: and South Dakota witness this terrifying scene firsthand. In nineteen 52 00:03:41,040 --> 00:03:44,920 Speaker 1: thirty one. They watched in horror as thick clouds of 53 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 1: locusts descended on their farms and proceeded to eat their 54 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: crops right down to the roots. Some tried to slow 55 00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:55,520 Speaker 1: the invaders by spreading blankets over their gardens, but the 56 00:03:55,600 --> 00:03:58,520 Speaker 1: number of insects was too great, and they soon chewed 57 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: their way through the fabric. Once the locusts had finished 58 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: with the corn and wheat crops, they began to devour 59 00:04:05,360 --> 00:04:09,160 Speaker 1: anything else that was edible. They ate the paint off houses, 60 00:04:09,280 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 1: stripped the bark from trees, and because they were drawn 61 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:15,600 Speaker 1: to salt, they even ate the sweat soaked clothing off 62 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:19,800 Speaker 1: people's backs. In some places, the insects were said to 63 00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:22,960 Speaker 1: have covered the ground several inches deep, to the point 64 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:25,800 Speaker 1: that you could scoop them up with a shovel. There 65 00:04:25,800 --> 00:04:28,640 Speaker 1: were even reports of trains that couldn't get enough traction 66 00:04:28,760 --> 00:04:32,040 Speaker 1: to move because the rails were so slick with locusts. 67 00:04:33,080 --> 00:04:35,960 Speaker 1: The sight of all this was distressing enough, but there 68 00:04:36,000 --> 00:04:39,560 Speaker 1: was also the noise to consider. The sound of millions 69 00:04:39,560 --> 00:04:43,039 Speaker 1: of insects incessantly chewing was likened to that of a 70 00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:47,160 Speaker 1: prairie fire, a low, crackling rasp that seemed to come 71 00:04:47,200 --> 00:04:51,960 Speaker 1: from all directions. The hordes of bugs finally dissipated in 72 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:55,920 Speaker 1: early August, and after many desperate cries for help, President 73 00:04:55,960 --> 00:05:00,000 Speaker 1: Herbert Hoover allotted fifteen million dollars to help farmers recovery 74 00:05:00,160 --> 00:05:03,839 Speaker 1: from the crisis. Some families were able to bounce back, 75 00:05:04,120 --> 00:05:06,799 Speaker 1: but for many others, the federal aid was too little, 76 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,040 Speaker 1: too late. They had no choice but to abandon their 77 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: farms and move elsewhere to start over. In that way, 78 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:17,960 Speaker 1: the nineteen thirty one locust plague became an early driver 79 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:21,280 Speaker 1: of one of the largest mass migrations in US history. 80 00:05:21,960 --> 00:05:25,159 Speaker 1: The exodus continued for the rest of the decade, spurred 81 00:05:25,160 --> 00:05:27,839 Speaker 1: on by the Great Depression and the dust Bowl, and 82 00:05:27,880 --> 00:05:31,479 Speaker 1: by nineteen forty nearly four million people had left the 83 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:37,040 Speaker 1: Great Plains for greener pastures. All these years later, locusts 84 00:05:37,120 --> 00:05:40,760 Speaker 1: still pose a threat to agriculture, not only in the US, 85 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:43,480 Speaker 1: but in parts of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East 86 00:05:43,520 --> 00:05:47,440 Speaker 1: as well. Their impact has been mitigated to some extent 87 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:51,040 Speaker 1: by pesticides, but in times of drought, when their numbers 88 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:54,039 Speaker 1: are high and their food supply is low, a plague 89 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:58,160 Speaker 1: of locusts remains every bit as dangerous as it's always been. 90 00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:04,839 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe blues Yay, and hopefully you now know a 91 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:09,120 Speaker 1: little more about history today than you did yesterday. If 92 00:06:09,120 --> 00:06:10,920 Speaker 1: you'd like to keep up with the show, you can 93 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:16,120 Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, 94 00:06:16,520 --> 00:06:19,320 Speaker 1: and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free 95 00:06:19,360 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: to send them my way by writing to This Day 96 00:06:22,080 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing 97 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:29,480 Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see 98 00:06:29,520 --> 00:06:44,160 Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.