It was decided to prove the Plague Locust for the School of Homœopathy because I was working on the Insects as a group of remedies and we did not have a proved remedy from the order of Orthoptera. (It has since come to my notice that Todd Rowe has proved the American Locust, Schistocerca americana.) This order includes the Locusts, Grasshoppers, Crickets and Katydids or Bush Crickets. Perhaps the most characteristic feature of the Orthoptera are their hind legs which are extremely well developed making them great jumpers and which hold the particular structure that allows them to stridulate or make sounds by scraping an organ on the legs against another on the body. In many Locusts it is also sensors on the legs that cause the insect to change from the solitary to the gregarious form.
The Locust is hemitabolous, it moults several times each larval stage, or instar, is a little more like the adult form. Only the adult form, the imago, is able to fly; the nymphal forms move by jumping and are called hoppers. The hoppers can swarm but there are never mixtures of hoppers and adults. The female lays her eggs in the ground pushing them into the earth with her long adapted abdomen. The time taken for the eggs to hatch and for the larvae to develop varies tremendously and is vastly speeded up when in the gregarious state.
The Locust is associated with tremendous destructive power. They can form swarms of many billions of individuals each of whom will eat its own weight (2g) of vegetation every day. In the years in which the largest swarms occur they can completely destroy the vegetation over an enormous area. Hence its name and the place it has in biblical and other histories as one of the plagues that afflict mankind. On the other hand the Locust (perhaps all Orthoptera depending on the authority you consult) is the only insect that is regarded as Kosher and Halal and is the most widely consumed of all insects. Whilst the locust destroys the crops of the landowner it is can be a nutritious windfall to those that have nothing to lose.
When swarming the insects are vulnerable to many predators. The unpredictable nature of the swarming behaviour means that no predator can adapt to an exclusive diet of Locusts but a great number of them do take advantage of the plentiful food that a swarm, particularly a swarm of hoppers, provides. Not only are individuals vulnerable but whole species are too. The Rocky Mountain Locust of Western North America produced larger swarms than any other insect. One swarm in 1874 covered an area greater than California and contained 12,500,000,000,000 individuals, yet 30 years later the species was extinct.
Swarming occurs when favourable conditions cause the number of Locusts to increase. When this happens they are more likely to come into contact with each other and if they rub their legs against those of other Locusts a certain number of times a seratonin based reaction is initiated which causes a hormonal cascade and the release of pheromones. The insect then changes from its solitary form to the gregarious form which reproduces more quickly and forms the enormous destructive swarms. In years of recession when there is no swarming the individuals live quietly in an area of Africa north of the equator. In swarming years they spread throughout Africa, into Europe and across the Middle East as far as India. Related species are found in America and Australia.
Locusts are best know for their voracious and destructive appetites and this was a feature of the proving. However, this is a general feature of all insects and indeed of all animals and of flying creatures in particular and so it is not particularly characteristic of the Locust, though it is an important symptom of the remedy.
The fact that the Locust has two different forms and physically changes when it is a gregarious animal from the form it has when it leads a solitary existence is definitely characteristic. The need to conform and find a place as part of the group whether it be herd, flock or hive is again a part of many animal remedies. The particular expression of this in the Locust, especially the idea of being one or the other and of there being no intermediate state, is more characteristic and so more useful in understanding the remedy. There is also a contrary in that the provers felt there was a need to be part of the group and they felt alone and abandoned when away from it; yet at the same time they feel suffocated by the needs of the group and better away from it. They feel vulnerable when alone and need company in order to feel safe. There is a feeling of being particularly vulnerable when indoors where they feel unsafe; they feel much safer and less agitated when outside.
The destructiveness of the Locust and the fear that it causes as it approaches in a great black cloud that blots out the sun was apparent in the remedy. On the other hand the Locust, like all insects is extremely vulnerable. Its strategy of producing vast numbers of progeny is an acknowledgement that so many of them will be killed and eaten, by snakes and lizards, by birds and by mammals, even man. The swarms of many billions of individuals last only a few years and soon they are forced back into the more normal state of a few individuals keeping the species alive. This vulnerability is a feature of the remedy and the two fears: man's of the approaching swarm and the Locust's of its many predators, blend into the particular fear of the Locust as a remedy.
As with most of the Insect remedies there is a low self esteem that can even be a feeling of self disgust. This feeling combines with the vulnerability to create a state of depression.
The theme that came through most powerfully and which is so characteristic is the idea of building up energy, holding it in until it bursts out with explosive force. This idea is expressed in many ways. In the purely physical form, gases building up in the digestive tract until they burst out in explosive belching. The provers were much better for physical exercise and exertion which allowed some of their pent up energy to dissipate. On a more emotional level the irritability that is common to the insects builds up until it reaches a level of uncontainable anger. The most expressive example of this in sexuality where a low level of sexual excitement builds to a point of uncontrollable need that could not be denied.
The degree to which this energy becomes beyond the control of the patient leads to a deep fear of losing control and a desire to keep everything on an even keel.
Some clinical experience with the Grasshopper indicates that the theme of pent up energy may be a general feature of the Orthoptera.
One prover dreamt of lilies and wolves and the pent up sexual energy of Lillium tigrinum and the canine appetite, pack dynamic and menace of the wolf sum up much of the remedy.
Times given are the actual time of day, not time from taking the remedy. XX.XX indicates no specific time was noted.
Days are numbered from 1, the day the remedy was taken. Day 0 indicates a symptom that was general and not tied to a particular date.
| Prover | Sex | Dose | Potency |
| 01P | Female | 1 | 30c |
| 02P | Female | 1 | 30c |
| 03P | Female | 1 | 30c |
| 04P | Female | 1 | 30c |
| 05P | Female | 1 | 30c |
| 06P | Female | 1 | 30c |
| 07P | Female | 1 | 30c |
| 08P | Male | 1 | 30c |
| 09P | Male | 1 | 30c |
Information from provers who did not take the remedy are included and clearly indicated. The reasons for this are outlined in Group and Proving Phenomena, Observations by Misha Norland, An Article published in Issue 72 of The Homoeopath, Winter 1999. The reader should make up his or her own mind as to how to treat these symptoms.
NS A new symptom never before experienced.
OS An old symptom previously experienced, but not in the preceding year.
RS A recent symptom experienced within the last year.
AS An altered symptom, one previously experienced but with at least one quality changed.
CS A cured symptom, a symptom that was removed during the proving.
IOS An old symptom that is felt with significantly greater intensity than before.
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