They're darkening the skies and threatening crops in southern Russia. Locusts, by the hundreds of thousands have wreaked havoc since they began their onslaught around July 20th. The locusts are nothing new for this part of Russia, but what is new is the fact that earlier efforts at eradicating the pests were unsuccessful.

From ABC News:

The waves of locusts began around July 20, according to Stavropol’s regional agricultural ministry. Vasilii Yegorov, a deputy agricultural minister, told ABC News that locusts appear in the region every year but normally they are able to exterminate them before they hatch.

This year though, Yegorov said, locusts had migrated from neighboring Russian regions, meaning authorities were unable to halt them easily, threatening what is one of Russia’s major farming areas.

Swarms have been reported across many other southern regions, stretching from Chechnya to the Astrakhan province on the Caspian Sea. Because of the locusts, a state of emergency has been declared in three regions near Stavropol, according to local media. In Stavropol alone, efforts to kill the insects have stretched across more than 350 miles, according to officials. 

Not too scary, right?

“It was very frightening,” Lubov Timus, a local woman who lives in Achikulak, told ABC News. “Some were as big as your finger! They came like a clouds.” 

Take a look at some of the video shot by a local guy:

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