Russia invaded by… crickets

Southern Russia and eastern Ukraine have been inundated with a gigantic swarm of crickets.

The insect invasion started in May and today affects a surface area of 1,500 square metres. And it's not just farmland: the major cities of Volgograd (in Russia) and Lugansk (in Ukraine) have also been coated in bugs. In the countryside, the invasion has devastated crops and rendered hunting impossible.

A state of emergency is in place in certain areas of Russia. On a lighter note, the governor of the Astrakhan region half-joked about catching the crickets, frying them, and selling them to the Asian countries that eat them.

"We have to work together with our neighbouring regions to successfully combat the crickets"

Alexei Iesskoff runs a farm in the Astrakhan region.

The crickets have destroyed the hay we use for rearing cattle and most of our potatoes have been lost too.

The crickets come from the reeds in the shallows of the Caspian Sea. They’re water-born, but we don’t know exactly where. We’d need to hire planes to find them, but we can’t afford it.

The reason we’re faced with this problem today is because the Kalmykia and Dagestan regions didn’t have enough money to put preventative measures into place against the crickets last year. Here in Astrakhan we had some money saved, but there was no point acting without our neighbouring regions; we all have to work together to successfully combat the crickets. If we do nothing now, we’ll have the same problem next year too.”

The following videos were sent by our Observer Alexei Iesskoff.