14. Grasshopper Swarms
The arid land of New Mexico and Arizona makes a perfect breeding ground for grasshoppers. Freezing temperatures and wet weather during the winter usually kill many of the eggs that are incubating, but but unusually mild winters, which will likely increase due to climate change, create the perfect breeding ground for grasshopper invasions. Drought conditions ensured that many of the eggs would survive, resulting in an overly large grasshopper population. They began hatching in the spring, and by Memorial Day at the end of May, people started noticing that grasshoppers were everywhere. The onslaught became so severe that thick clouds of grasshoppers showed up on weather radar as if they were rain clouds.
Grasshoppers latched onto people’s faces as they were walking down sidewalks, splattered on car windshields, and terrorized gardens and farms. City departments encouraged people not to use pesticides, however, because the grasshoppers could fly as far as three to five miles. Pesticides would only kill a few of the grasshoppers while harming the local ecosystem of insects. The only solution was to wait out the infestation until it finally came to an end. Milder winters and longer, more intense droughts – as a result of global warming – mean that these rare infestations may become much more common.