4 ms·

I wonder how drones would fair flying thru this, as on scale a locust in relation to the engines upon a drone is large in relation of a bird to an aeroplane eng

by Zenst 7y ago

I wonder how drones would fair flying thru this, as on scale a locust in relation to the engines upon a drone is large in relation of a bird to an aeroplane engine.

simias 7y ago
It seems a bit tone-deaf to worry about drones when this could trigger severe food shortages.
- tnel77 7y ago
  How so? They didn’t say the safety of drones are more important than the people of East Africa. Drones could very well be used to help combat this crisis. Have you considered not being upset just for the fun of it?
- Zenst 7y ago
  Thank you for asking that and my apologies for not initially providing a context and by that poor omission opening up the very valid and fair possibility that I was being callous and uncaring. Also thank you for taking the time to raise that question instead of blindly judging and running with the worst case presumption, thank you. I was thinking along the lines of fishing them as a food resources and drones with nets, but before I ran with that was wondering how well a drone would cope with such swarms and not something that the net did not offerup as a clear answer, either. [EDIT ADD first paragraph ]
  - simias 7y ago
    Ah, I see. I thought it was a random musing. My apologies then. That being said regardless of the efficiency of such a solution I suspect that the scale of the invasion would make it hard to make a difference lest you have an army of drones at your disposal. The area to cover is insanely large.
    - Zenst 7y ago
      No apology needed, and thank you for taking the time to comment your thoughts as without such feedback I would never of been able to clear things up. [EDIT ADD] Indeed, if anything I should apologize as I'd left no context behind the question and leaving that open left the possibility of callous unthoughtfulness and you most kindly and rightly so, raised that aspect. Many would of just gone with a downvote - presumed the worst and ran with it in sillence, so again thank you for taking the time to question that. If I could mod you up more for that, I would. [EDIT ADD - I was able to edit my initial reply as did seem you was being unfairly judged and I hope I've addressed that]
  - bryanrasmussen 7y ago
    I think something more like a kite rig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_rig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_rig, but a net would be good. if they could be "thrown" up in the air quickly, have a sort of sticky inside so locust would be caught better, as they filled the net the net would become heavy and be brought down. The net should then be easily detachable somehow, attach another, throw up into the swarm. Swarm passes by, the kite netters have a couple tons of locusts netted, a good harvest. on edit: personally like because has such a 50s sci-fi feel to it.
    - Zenst 7y ago
      I like the idea of kites, was thinking rockets and large net. As for the Sci-fi, soon as you mentioned that I oddly thought of Dune, probably the rare resource mining aspect of such swarms and climate comparison going on there.
    - sitkack 7y ago
      Big fabric rotors, like those used on old windmills or a VAWT could scoop them out of the sky.
      - Zenst 7y ago
        I just had a dig into what altitude they fly at and 2,000 meter ceiling would make things more complicated. Hot air balloons dropping nets, or some weather balloons - again tethered. Though would probably want to run with hydrogen for costs, just safety and training go up, so greater initial costs there. So many details. Kinda gets down to sky versions of submarine nets in predictable flight paths into crop area's as being the best spots to set such trapping nets up. Though if it turns out you just need to lay down football sized green carpet and that attracts them - well that opens up other avenues in trapping or indeed - zapping them once they touch down.
    - omgwtfbyobbq 7y ago
      That sounds like industrial production of kungu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunga_cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunga_cake
- civilian 7y ago
  This has already been addressed by Zenst, but this is a forum with a lot of engineers. Of course zenst was thinking about whether it's viable to use drones as a locust prevention measure, but you first have to start with whether drones can even fly in a locust swarm. Get out of here with your pre-judgement
ChuckMcM 7y ago
Not well, there are documented cases of locust swarms bringing down small planes, and causing emergencies on large planes.
- NittLion78 7y ago
  ...as recently as 2 weeks ago, no less https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51098209 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51098209
- Zenst 7y ago
  Thank you, suspected as much but just didn't know. Was pondering drone fishing fleets harvesting such swarms, back to the mental drawing board then for me.
  - ChuckMcM 7y ago
    I understand that, we can make 'high protein flour' out of crickets[1] it seems like we should be able to process Locusts into some sort of protein source for human consumption. But it is really hard to actually visualize/imagine these swarms without actually being there in one. The amount of infrastructure you would have to deploy essentially on a short term basis[2] is really infeasible with current technology. [1] https://www.cricketflours.com/ https://www.cricketflours.com/ [2] Swarms are a function of environmental conditions, they grow exponentially but they die quickly when conditions change, it is the series of monsoons at the right time that have made this one so big. In "regular" years they are much smaller.
    - cwmma 7y ago
      Locust are crickets so yes you would be able to
    - ajnin 7y ago
      That would mitigate the problem, but I don't think that could be used as a food source to replace what they destroyed, they eat up to their own weight per day, however insect digestion is pretty inefficient, they leave a lot of nutrients behind, so eating them up would only partially replace the losses. Also catching a substantial fraction of a swarm that is spread over a very very large area and moves by up to 150 km a day would be very hard, and is largely impossible currently.

by Zenst 7y ago

I wonder how drones would fair flying thru this, as on scale a locust in relation to the engines upon a drone is large in relation of a bird to an aeroplane engine.

simias 7y ago

It seems a bit tone-deaf to worry about drones when this could trigger severe food shortages.

tnel77 7y ago
How so? They didn’t say the safety of drones are more important than the people of East Africa. Drones could very well be used to help combat this crisis. Have you considered not being upset just for the fun of it?
Zenst 7y ago
Thank you for asking that and my apologies for not initially providing a context and by that poor omission opening up the very valid and fair possibility that I was being callous and uncaring. Also thank you for taking the time to raise that question instead of blindly judging and running with the worst case presumption, thank you. I was thinking along the lines of fishing them as a food resources and drones with nets, but before I ran with that was wondering how well a drone would cope with such swarms and not something that the net did not offerup as a clear answer, either. [EDIT ADD first paragraph ]
- simias 7y ago
  Ah, I see. I thought it was a random musing. My apologies then. That being said regardless of the efficiency of such a solution I suspect that the scale of the invasion would make it hard to make a difference lest you have an army of drones at your disposal. The area to cover is insanely large.
  - Zenst 7y ago
    No apology needed, and thank you for taking the time to comment your thoughts as without such feedback I would never of been able to clear things up. [EDIT ADD] Indeed, if anything I should apologize as I'd left no context behind the question and leaving that open left the possibility of callous unthoughtfulness and you most kindly and rightly so, raised that aspect. Many would of just gone with a downvote - presumed the worst and ran with it in sillence, so again thank you for taking the time to question that. If I could mod you up more for that, I would. [EDIT ADD - I was able to edit my initial reply as did seem you was being unfairly judged and I hope I've addressed that]
- bryanrasmussen 7y ago
  I think something more like a kite rig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_rig https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite_rig, but a net would be good. if they could be "thrown" up in the air quickly, have a sort of sticky inside so locust would be caught better, as they filled the net the net would become heavy and be brought down. The net should then be easily detachable somehow, attach another, throw up into the swarm. Swarm passes by, the kite netters have a couple tons of locusts netted, a good harvest. on edit: personally like because has such a 50s sci-fi feel to it.
  - Zenst 7y ago
    I like the idea of kites, was thinking rockets and large net. As for the Sci-fi, soon as you mentioned that I oddly thought of Dune, probably the rare resource mining aspect of such swarms and climate comparison going on there.
  - sitkack 7y ago
    Big fabric rotors, like those used on old windmills or a VAWT could scoop them out of the sky.
    - Zenst 7y ago
      I just had a dig into what altitude they fly at and 2,000 meter ceiling would make things more complicated. Hot air balloons dropping nets, or some weather balloons - again tethered. Though would probably want to run with hydrogen for costs, just safety and training go up, so greater initial costs there. So many details. Kinda gets down to sky versions of submarine nets in predictable flight paths into crop area's as being the best spots to set such trapping nets up. Though if it turns out you just need to lay down football sized green carpet and that attracts them - well that opens up other avenues in trapping or indeed - zapping them once they touch down.
  - omgwtfbyobbq 7y ago
    That sounds like industrial production of kungu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunga_cake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunga_cake
civilian 7y ago
This has already been addressed by Zenst, but this is a forum with a lot of engineers. Of course zenst was thinking about whether it's viable to use drones as a locust prevention measure, but you first have to start with whether drones can even fly in a locust swarm. Get out of here with your pre-judgement

ChuckMcM 7y ago

Not well, there are documented cases of locust swarms bringing down small planes, and causing emergencies on large planes.

NittLion78 7y ago
...as recently as 2 weeks ago, no less https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51098209 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51098209
Zenst 7y ago
Thank you, suspected as much but just didn't know. Was pondering drone fishing fleets harvesting such swarms, back to the mental drawing board then for me.
- ChuckMcM 7y ago
  I understand that, we can make 'high protein flour' out of crickets[1] it seems like we should be able to process Locusts into some sort of protein source for human consumption. But it is really hard to actually visualize/imagine these swarms without actually being there in one. The amount of infrastructure you would have to deploy essentially on a short term basis[2] is really infeasible with current technology. [1] https://www.cricketflours.com/ https://www.cricketflours.com/ [2] Swarms are a function of environmental conditions, they grow exponentially but they die quickly when conditions change, it is the series of monsoons at the right time that have made this one so big. In "regular" years they are much smaller.
  - cwmma 7y ago
    Locust are crickets so yes you would be able to
  - ajnin 7y ago
    That would mitigate the problem, but I don't think that could be used as a food source to replace what they destroyed, they eat up to their own weight per day, however insect digestion is pretty inefficient, they leave a lot of nutrients behind, so eating them up would only partially replace the losses. Also catching a substantial fraction of a swarm that is spread over a very very large area and moves by up to 150 km a day would be very hard, and is largely impossible currently.