Repent, repent! The end is nigh...
3And out of the smoke locusts came down upon the earth and were given power like that of scorpions of the earth. 4They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those people who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. 5They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. 6During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
7The locusts looked like horses prepared for battle. On their heads they wore something like crowns of gold, and their faces resembled human faces. 8Their hair was like women's hair, and their teeth were like lions' teeth. 9They had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the thundering of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. 10They had tails and stings like scorpions, and in their tails they had power to torment people for five months. 11They had as king over them the angel of the Abyss, whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek, Apollyon.
Revelation 9.
Plague of locusts nears city
Sarah Wotherspoon
16dec05
A LOCUST plague sweeping across Victoria could reach Melbourne this weekend.
The pests, which have decimated crops in the north of the state, can travel up to 500km overnight if weather conditions are right.
The plague is Victoria's worst in 30 years and could cause up to $10 million damage to the state's agriculture industry if it reaches southern irrigation, vegetable and dairy farming areas.
Department of Primary Industries principal scientist Dr Malcolm Campbell said large swarms concentrated in Mitiamo, in the north, had begun moving into Inglewood and Marong, northwest of Bendigo.
He warned yesterday's northerly winds could push the migrating locusts into suburban back yards within days.
"We are talking about a blanket of locusts in swarms up to a few square kilometres in size," he said.
He cautioned against trying to kill them with insecticide, saying it wouldn't work.
He said plants could be protected with shade cloth, but little could be done for lawns.
There are also large swarms in Swifts Creek in Victoria's east.
Dr Campbell said the locusts would live for another four to six weeks and continue laying eggs during that time. Aerial spraying of the swarms can only be done at least 1500m away from populated areas.
"We spray and kill the majority of the adults in swarms but we cannot spray them all because some are too small.
"The reality is we can only really effectively spray in the northwest of the state and we can only target swarms in 50 per cent of areas," Dr Campbell said.
"We will not be able to kill all the adult locusts and once they move out of Mitiamo we will not be able to spray them."
He said the plague had quickly wiped out newly planted crops and essential summer pastures.
"I saw a lucerne paddock where every leaf had been stripped and every stalk of lucerne had been chopped in half," he said.
"We flew above a swarm at about 1000 feet (330m) and everything behind them was gone and everything in front of them was still there. The pasture was totally destroyed."
Victorian Farmers Federation president Simon Ramsay said the damage was immeasurable.
He said the plague had made life tougher for some farmers still recovering from drought.
"It's very demoralising. Thankfully it's only patches at the moment," he said.
"The last thing farmers -- particularly those in the Campaspe area -- want to see is a battle line of locusts coming down on top of them
from: http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,17578504,00.html