The whole 'damned place' seemed full of revolting insects that ate huge holes in new, expensive uniforms

From The Great Mutiny by Christopher Hibbert. Page 33.

Occasionally there was a dust storm. The sky would suddenly darken, a light breeze would come up, then black dense clouds of dust would come tearing down, 'seeming to threaten to swallow you up', as William Mountsteven said, sweeping through the most tightly closed crevices, and leaving a thick, gritty coating on everything 'till even the sheets on your bed are brown, and you could easily write your name upon the pillow'. Or perhaps there would be a whirlwind which would catch up all the clothes that the dhobies had been washing and whirl them into what Lieutenant Cubitt described as 'an
inverted cone of sticks and straw and linen dancing along with half a dozen men rushing frantically after it', picking up all the rubbish in its course, tearing up tents and scattering grain, then abruptly collapsing in a silent heap as if thrown down from above. Or there might be a sudden storm such as the one Dr Hadow described as coming up just before sunset one May evening and lasting for upwards of three hours. Many tents were torn to shreds; many more blown down and some carried right away. The ground was more than ankle deep in water, and the worst part of the business was the mess fires were put out and the dinner washed away. The loaves of bread turned to huge lumps of poultice, and, as Taylor's tent still stood, we all huddled into it and sat shivering and eating lumps of cold poultice with some anchovy paste he produced and drinking rum by way of dining.

After such storms the air would resound with the croaking of frogs; masses of insects flitted about, white ants, moths, cockchafers and fireflies, beetles, crickets and millions of bheerbahutis, creatures which looked like shreds of red velvet. 'Everything was sodden. You yourself were damp and out of sorts', and India seemed to many a homesick, disgruntled Englishman, 'a detestable country'. Its people were 'savages'; its food inedible; its climate horrible; the whole 'damned place' seemed full of revolting insects that ate huge holes in new, expensive uniforms, of soggy peaches that tasted like turnips and cantankerous camels that smelled like drains.