Sorry, there will be more things at the end of the year, and the frequency of updates may not be guaranteed, so I'll try to do more than two! It is expected to return to normal after the Spring Festival!

- I'm the dividing line -

After the protagonist gets the news, he rides Tempest back to "Dongyang City".

After seeing the nematode eggs, the protagonist comes up with a way to use the nematodes to deal with the locust swarm.

Wire worms grow rapidly, killing a locust with just one or two eggs, and can significantly affect locust behavior during parasitism. A single nematode can lay thousands of eggs.

In fact, if the nematodes that mate and lay eggs near Dongyang City do not find a suitable breeding ground with water, they die too quickly, and they can leave more eggs behind.

Although nematodes alone cannot completely eradicate locusts in pasture areas, it is never known of any species or community that nematodes have wiped out.

As a parasite, the nematode is always unconscious, carefully maintaining balance, after all, if the host community is destroyed too hard, it is not conducive to the reproduction and replacement of their own race in the future.

But in the current situation of locust infestation and rapid population growth, these parasites can at least reduce their population size, and as long as the number of locusts is controlled to a certain extent, they will not become swarms of terror locusts roaming around.

Although ants are not the hosts of nematodes, the protagonist is accustomed to the fact that the world often has his knowledge and unexpected mutations, so it is better to be careful.

Soon, though, the protagonist realizes that he's overthinking. After experiments, it was found that these nematode eggs were abnormally stable during dry storage and did not hatch at all. It is only when exposed to water that the eggs hatch rapidly and are visible to the naked eye.

So, after some preparation, the next day the protagonist set off with a team.

They will go to a stream not far from the pasture, which winds its way down the southern hills and eventually joins the great lake to the east, where the territory of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom on one side and some of the indigenous ants on the opposite side of the stream has become a moat for these indigenous ants to avoid the invasion of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom.

At some bends, the stream creates calm pools that are home to some aquatic insects and where locusts and other insects rehydrate – insects also prefer to choose a calm place to drink so that they don't get swept up in the waves and die.

As an insect that feeds primarily on plants, most of the water needed in the locust's body can be obtained from fresh plants. But in today's highly competitive environment, many locusts have to eat meat, stems and roots that don't have a high water content, so they need to add some extra water.

This waterhole has been spotted by the Scythe Ant Scouts of the Legion of the Divine Messenger King, and the protagonist once wanted to use it as a hunting ground to hunt the locust swarm, as the locust density here is very high.

But some commanders persuade the protagonist to abandon this plan - the stream is not as tame as it seems, and in the event of a rainfall, the stream swells and floods both banks.

When the time comes, the locust swarms can quickly flee with jumps, and the ants will not be able to run through the flood.

This easily rampant mountain stream has caused no ant nests on either side of the river, making it a haven for wild arthropods.

But now, the protagonist is ready to turn this paradise into a land of locusts.

After a half-day trek, after arriving at the waterhole, the protagonist shook his tentacles dissatisfied.

There is indeed a large number of locusts gathering along this waterhole, and the width and calm of the water is also suitable for the breeding of nematode eggs.

However, there are obviously a large number of aquatic insects such as dragon lice in the waterhole, which eat meat, and how many of the nematode eggs can escape from the mouths of these ferocious carnivorous insects.

But now that they're all here, the protagonist still orders the ants to drop a hundred eggs for experiments.

Sure enough, a small portion of the eggs are eaten by some small aquatic insects or dragonfly larvae, but to the protagonist's delight, the largest and most vougal dragon lice do not eat the eggs.

The protagonist quickly understands why - these dragon lice have better food options.

Dragon lice, commonly known as water turtle, also known as Zelao, black shell insect, water turtle, water turtle insect, urine shooting turtle, small turtle, etc. It belongs to the class Insecta, Coleoptera, Carnivorous Suborder, and Dragon Lice Family, and is an aquatic insect.

In the south of China, dragon lice, as a medicinal and edible insect, is known as the "water ginseng" with unique flavor and rich nutrition. However, even if the protagonist is still a human, he does not dare to eat these black beetles.

Adult dragon lice are 13-45 mm long, ovate or oblong-ovate, slightly narrower at the tip, black or dark brown; The head is slightly flattened, and the head is retracted into the anterior chest; dorsoventral surface of body arched, compound eyes prominent; antennae filiform, 11-segmented, lower jaw whiskers short; There are 3 pairs of feet, the forefoot is small, the hindfoot is flattened laterally, and there are long hairs. The hind foot is a swimming foot, the posterior basal ganglia and the posterior thoracic ventral plate occupy more than half of the ventral surface, and there is no needle puncture on the ventral surface of the thorax.

Dragons lice have two exhaust tube openings on their abdomen, called valves, which are tissues that run through the body.

In order to live in water, air is stored between the elytra and the abdomen, and the oxygen in the air is supplied to the tissues in the body through the trachea. There are a lot of steel hairs on the mouth of the valve, which acts like a "filter" to let air pass through and filter out impurities.

Not only does the air enter the trachea, but some of it remains in the space between the elytra and the abdomen, forming a bubble. When dragon lice dive deep into the water, they take this part of the air with them, as if they are carrying an "oxygen tank".

When the oxygen in this "oxygen tank" is exhausted, the dragon lice will stop on the branches and leaves of the food at the bottom of the water, slightly the pair of long hind feet, and squeeze out a bubble from under the elytra, this bubble becomes larger and larger, dragging it at the end of the abdomen, which is another "oxygen tank" used by the dragon lice to breathe. In this bubble, oxygen has been depleted very thinly. However, due to the large amount of oxygen dissolved in the water, and due to the pressure, the oxygen in the water will seep into the bubbles.

The dragon lice's trachea is connected to the air in the bubbles, and the oxygen that seeps into the bubbles will continue to flow to the trachea for the dragon lice to breathe.

When the dragon lice needs to swim, it will retract the bubble, and when it stops, it will squeeze out a bubble again.

Dragon lice are mainly carnivorous, and are good at catching small organisms, organic matter, and aquatic plants in the water, and even larvae will feed on small fish, tadpoles, etc.

In this world, dragon lice apparently do not feed on fish and shrimp, so they set their sights on another large, calorie-dense food – water-drinking locusts.