Chapter 257 Palm-sized Locusts
This giant locust had mottled black and brown patterns on its body. Xia Xiaoman had never seen a locust with this skin color before. She didn't know if she was ignorant or if the locust had mutated.
Seeing such a big locust, Xia Xiaoman gave up the idea of going out to catch locusts.
Now there were locusts everywhere outside. She could hear the sound of locusts hitting and gnawing on the wooden boards through the window. If she went out at this time, let alone catching locusts, she would be lucky not to be eaten by them.
There was a constant buzzing sound outside, a bit like the noise of a plane flying over, and a bit like the whistling of a strong wind. If you listen carefully, you can also hear some creaking sounds, and you can't tell whether it is the sound of locusts calling or the sound of locusts gnawing on the wood.
Maodan has sensitive hearing. When he hears these noises, he becomes very anxious and keeps howling, sometimes even growling warnings.
Unfortunately, the insects could not hear its voice, let alone the warning in its voice, and continued to gnaw on my wooden boards and the weeds and tree roots that had just emerged from the ground.
Xia Xiaoman felt that her vegetable field could not be saved. The locusts were so big and the plastic film was so thin. The locusts could easily make a hole and get in with just a scratch.
Just as I was daydreaming, a miserable scream suddenly came from outside.
Xia Xiaoman pricked up her ears and listened. It seemed to be a man's voice. The noise made by the locusts was too loud, so she couldn't hear it clearly. She vaguely heard that the man seemed to be asking for help.
The person who asked for help thought of the government's collection of locusts two years ago, so he thought of catching locusts and taking them to the trading point to exchange for supplies. Who knew that as soon as he went out, he was surrounded by an overwhelming swarm of locusts. In less than a few seconds, his body was covered with wounds cut by the locusts.
Blood flowed out of the wound, and locusts, as if they had smelled nectar, crowded into the wound to suck and bite his flesh.
The man wanted to run back home, but there were locusts everywhere and he couldn't see the direction of his home. When he finally found his home, there was no good skin left.
This situation happened in many places in the floating city. Those who were lucky could run back indoors to avoid being bitten by locusts. Those who were unlucky were bitten to death by locusts bit by bit.
…
There is always day and no night, and locusts are diurnal insects.
During the locust plague two years ago, the locusts would gradually leave in the evening. But now, the locusts have not left for a full 26 hours, as if they want to eat up all the edible food in the floating city before leaving.
There was noise from locusts everywhere. Xia Xiaoman and Maodan hadn't slept for two days. Only when the noise outside died down did Xia Xiaoman quietly open the door and look out.
There are still a lot of locusts outside the door, but compared to the number of locusts that covered the sky in the past two days, there are really not that many locusts now.
Xia Xiaoman went back to the basement and moved the chicken coops and rabbit cages to the yard, letting them catch locusts to eat themselves, and then went to check the vegetable garden.
Sure enough, there was nothing left in the vegetable garden except the plastic film that the locusts didn't eat. Even the wood supporting the shed was gnawed into pits. The wooden windows of the house were also gnawed.
The ground was even more exaggerated, as if someone had turned over a layer of soil, and all the soil underneath was turned up. Even her newly cut hair and the hair that fell off her eggs were eaten up.
Xia Xiaoman's expression changed. This time the locusts are not easy to deal with!
She took out a long hard iron wire and strung up the locusts lying on the ground and wall one by one. After killing them, she threw them into a snakeskin bag to feed the chickens and rabbits later.
Seeing the locust eggs being eaten one by one nearby, Xia Xiaoman thought that perhaps these locusts would not be able to be fed to the chickens and would be eaten by the eggs.
When she was catching locusts, she saw another horrifying phenomenon: some locusts saw their companions being stabbed to death on the wire, spread their wings, flew to their companions, and started to eat them.
Seeing this, Xia Xiaoman began to wonder if these locusts were a combination of mantises. They ate their own kind like mantises, and the serrations on their legs were as sharp as mantises.
"What the hell! Hiss, what kind of locust is this? Why are its claws so sharp? It hurts me to death!"
"Be careful. I heard that the person living in Villa No. 7 went out to catch locusts the day before yesterday and his face was bitten by them."
"No way! It's just a bug. Can it eat people?"
"People can eat each other when they are extremely hungry, so it's no wonder that insects eat people when they are extremely hungry. Stop talking nonsense and catch the locusts!"
"The trading point hasn't said they'll accept locusts yet. What if they don't accept them after we catch them? Wouldn't that mean our trip would be in vain?"
"Tsk, why are you talking so much nonsense? Just catch me if I tell you to. Wait until you can accept my offer."
“…”
Hearing the conversation outside, Xia Xiaoman looked out through the crack in the door. Almost everyone living in the villa area ran out to catch locusts. There were many locusts on the road, and they stepped on them one by one, crushed them to death and threw them into the bag. After a while, the bag was half full.
Xia Xiaoman did not go out. When she had caught almost all the locusts in the yard, she opened one of the windows in the living room on the first floor and nailed a layer of iron mesh on it. Then she placed two iron buckets under the window.
A swinging lid is placed on the iron bucket. Once the weight of the things placed on the lid is too heavy, the lid will tilt downward and the things on the lid will fall into the iron bucket.
Since ancient times, there will not be only one wave of locust plagues. The locusts will definitely come again 1-2 times.
Sure enough, around nine o'clock the next morning, the bright sun was blocked by locusts again, and a huge army of locusts came in full force.
The second batch of locusts was more ferocious than the first batch. You could tell from the sound of the locusts hitting the wooden boards on the wall. Xia Xiaoman was worried that they would smash her to pieces.
Seeing that the locust army was approaching, Xia Xiaoman smeared vegetable juice on the iron net early on. The locusts smelled the scent and crawled on the iron net one by one. Soon the whole iron net was full of locusts.
Seeing this, Xia Xiaoman took out an electric baton, placed it on the iron net, and turned the switch to the maximum.
The next second, a burnt smell came from the iron net, and the locusts fell down and landed on the lid of the iron barrel. Soon the lid could not bear the weight and tilted down, and the corpses of the locusts were successfully put into the iron barrel.
Xia Xiaoman originally wanted to use an electric mosquito swatter to kill the locusts as she did before, but the voltage of the electric mosquito swatter was too small, and it was very difficult to kill the palm-sized locusts with electric shock. An electric baton would be more useful.
Maodan drooled at the smell of burnt food, and kept rubbing Xia Xiaoman's trouser legs with his furry head to act coquettishly.
These little bugs are very much to its taste, they are crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside.
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