Gina unlocks the inner door using the keypad and enters the glass room carrying the ficus tree, without the protective suit.
Maddy answers to discover it is her assistant, Vivian (Esperanza Catubig), who is ringing, telling her that a lab at the VIA has been red flagged by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Peter goes into the glass room containing the locusts, and extracts a single insect for himself and Maddy to take a look at, instructing her to put on a gas mask at the same time.
The insect is only briefly immobilised by the DDT but recovers in mere seconds to continue flying round the cage, shocking Maddy.
Peter further reveals they are resistant to all known pesticides, not just DDT, that they reproduce ten times faster than normal locusts and they live longer.
Meanwhile, a couple camping by the American River in California wake up to discover their tent is saturated with a swarm of sleeping locusts, and they flee.
Coincidentally, Maddy, on the road in California with the USDA Voracious Insect Mobile Research Lab, sees the same swarm flying overhead.
Back in Napa Valley, Maddy and her team are on the scene of the earlier swarm's attack on the farm, revealing the locusts have stripped every single bush and tree down to the bark.
The USWS predicts the Virginia swarm will head towards the city of Pittsburgh in the coming hours but mentions they gave the same information to Peter.
Peter tries to get Ruby (Mikki Val), the lead air traffic controller, not to launch planes to the north east, as the locusts are heading from that direction.
The plane crashes in a fiery explosion just yards from the end of the runway in full view of Ruby, who realises her mistake too late.
Back at the hospital, Peter and Terry see the news, which broadcasts the video captured earlier at the festival by the dropped camera.
Meanwhile, at the Department for Homeland Security, a meeting takes place between Maddy, her boss Secretary Morales (Mike Gomez), General Miller (Gregory Alan Williams), Senator Clauson (Margaret Lawhon), Director Rusk (Mark Costello), and Lorelei Wentworth (Natalija Nogulich) to determine the course of action required.
General Miller is not convinced they are a threat, but changes his mind when he sees the evidence, warning Secretary Morales privately he may not have his job much longer and proposing the military use weapons against them.
Whilst they board the helicopter, Maddy discreetly makes a call to the news, informing them of the VX nerve gas test run.
However, when they are airborne, the USWS informs the group the swarm over Ohio they would be targeting has moved towards southern Indiana and Miller continues to press ahead with the plans.
Maddy calls Dan, asking him to check on her grandfather, Lyle (Mike Farrell), whose farm is in Indiana and thus right in the path of the locusts.
They take shelter in a metal grain silo just in time, but as they do so, Maddy notices the electric fly trap on the outside has killed a few locusts.
At the Department for Homeland Security, the debate continues on how to deal with them, those in the meeting reluctantly agreeing to Miller's plan to use the toxic VX gas on both swarms as there is no alternative.
Miller does not believe it can work, calling it "fantasy" and Secretary Morales, Maddy's boss, angrily tells them to sit down, but the quiet Lorelei Wentworth defends Dan and Maddy, revealing she is the Secretary for the Department of Energy, and that it may indeed be possible to create a massive electric current to kill the swarms, as both swarms are approaching the Continental Power Grids.
Maddy and Dan arrive at one of the two sites, and instruct the Air Force to move the weather balloons closer to the power lines, otherwise they will not work.
The cables burst into flames with the amount of current, exploding the transformers, but the plan works, the locust swarms are killed by the electricity.
Those in the Department of Homeland Security meeting celebrate, but Secretary Morales reverses the situation on General Miller, warning him he might not have a job much longer for wanting to gas the American people.