Comments:Brain chemical Serotonin behind locusts’ swarming instinct

Latest comment: 13 years ago by Blumrosen

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Absolutely wonderful. A thousand jubilations to the fine fellows at Oxford, Sydney, and Cambridge.—The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.158.177.118 (talkcontribs) Very good article . There was once a locust that was some six inches in length ? Well thank god that thing has gone extinct ?Well if the distribution of psychtropic meds to the grasshoppers doesnt work out I have another (albeit perhaps a bit crazy) idea ? I was thinking the use of airships and or hot air balloons with giant lightweight nets slung beneath them ( constructed of fiberglass window screen material and half inch pvc pipe perhaps)working in conjunction with " ground crews " which would close up and secure the nets once the airships and or balloons had captured a bunch of em ? Rounded em up so to speak ? Once secured in " bug bundles" they could at that point be dealt with in any number of ways ? Such as being ground up for chicken feed or fish food for aquafarmers? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.120.33.119 (talk) 05:24, 12 February 2009 (UTC)Reply

I too change from a calm and reclusive loner to a wild gregarious party animal, often converging in fields with swarms of like minded ravers after upping our serotinin levels. I wonder if you slowed locust chirps down enough if they'd sound like house music.

-Rhesusmonkey —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.56.123.129 (talk) 05:08, 13 February 2009 (UTC)Reply

What wonderfully exciting news. A breakthrough, as far as I am concerned. This article taught me a lot.

The more we know, the better prepared we can be for what we don't know. Where will this go? What will it be like when we get there? What fascinating questions.

Hope we learn, along the way, more about the effects of locusts, and the affects of seratonin-controlling substances.

For example, while there is no dispute that locusts can and have caused devasting damage throughout known and biblical history, what other affects have they had and what other affects have their devastation caused? If we control locust swarms, will we be losing some benefit that we have yet to identify? Will this put us on notice so we take the opportunity to do the research on the benefits, as well as the fearful detriments? Without such research, it seems to me, that we could easily be confronted with some very startling "unexpected consequence."

For another example, if we spray a substance or put it into the food chain that could control seratonin levels in locusts, will it also control seratonin levels in humans, or in other animals, or in yet other living things? Will we discover that spraying anti-seratonin substances is a devastating as was spraying DDT? Will we, at that point, have enough energy and creativity and ability to "swarm" on our own to recognize what is happening to us, develop means of studying the problem, have an efficient enough decision-making process to head the human smarm in the "right" direction, and deliver the solution that could break us out of the anti-seratonin malaise of our own making? --Blumrosen (talk) 13:48, 6 February 2011 (UTC)?Reply