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Comment by ipsum2 | Hacker News Reader

> you can by rubing the back legs of a grasshopper for about 30 mins(iirc maybe shooter time) and it will start to develop wings and change.

If true, this seems very effective for economic terrorism. I wonder why thats not more common.

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A production rate of 32 locusts per person per 16-hour workday isn't enough to matter unless you have a small army of people rubbing grasshopper legs together all day, I'd think. Though it is a pretty funny image.

Just keep enough of them in a small enclosure. Be prepared to increase enclosure size rapidly for a few days or weeks.

Looks like grasshoppers generally live 50ish days as an adult. That's gonna put some serious limits on your max per-grasshopper-leg-rubber total accumulated grasshoppers.

The grasshoppers rub each other.

The grasshoppers self-activate as locusts under crowded conditions. Once they enter the swarming phase, the behaviour is self-perpetuating, generally until foid supplies are exhausted. With high mobility, this can take time and strip tremendous areas of land.

By stocking a sufficient population early on, in sufficient confinement,, it might be possible to create a perpetuating, expanding, swarm.

Most humans have two hands so you're off by at least a factor of 2.

If you implement "middle out" grasshopper rubbing, you can triple production

The rubbing only increased serotonin levels and 4-3 hours later after that boost, they transform. So if you was to increase their serotonin levels via other means, you would still only turn grasshoppers into locusts. Yes locusts metabolism in faster, so they are more veracious.

As a form of terrorism, well you would still need to bread and or/find a huge swarm of grasshoppers and if you found such a size large enough, they would already naturally be swarming. Though the prospect of some terrorist group breaking grasshoppers has an edge of Chris Morris about it that bemuses me.

Fascinating that it is related to serotonin! I wonder if an antagonist would prevent the behaviour? Might be challenging to dose large numbers of locusts.

Maybe target them with commercials for pro-depressants? Feeling restless, gregarious, like you just might take ravenous flight? Ask your locust doctor if pro-depressants are right for you.

Then we just need some sexually attractive locusts to lobby the locust doctors and problem solved!

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