On 26 June 2014 Farah Imran Shams had the chance to witness
a locust swarm and sent me the following details “This is the first time I have
seen one in the 8 years that I have been living here. It was not a very large
swarm, but it stayed in my compound for half an hour, more than enough time for
me to photograph some of this phenomenon. This incident happened at around 11
am in the city of Khamis Mushait. The pictures were taken in a housing compound
called ISKAN II, which is a compound for military hospital doctors. The locust
swarm was followed by an army of large digger wasps, a kind that I have not
seen before. They were hunting the locusts by the hundreds and burying them in
quickly dug nests in the sand. Three hours later, all the wasps had left as
well, leaving dozens of holes in the kids play area. It was a very interesting
and unique phenomenon, and my boys loved it”. Farah sent me a number of
photographs of the event that I have reproduced below with kind permission. I
have not seen anything like this in the time I have lived in Saudi Arabia and
it certainly looks like an even to behold if I ever do get the chance.
