Banding locusts

“Today’s finding represents the enormity of the task ahead of us,” Minister Whan said.

“We have seen an explosion in locust numbers almost overnight. In excess of 560 bands have been detected by surveillance since Wednesday.

“We will deploy resources to the west of Walgett where this infestation was detected.

“We have seen an explosion in locust numbers almost overnight. In excess of 560 bands have been detected by surveillance since Wednesday.

“We will deploy resources to the west of Walgett where this infestation was detected.

“Our operations team at State Co-ordination Headquarters in Orange, the APLC and Livestock Health and Pest Authority experts are working out a pin-point strategy to spray this area and knock these locusts out before they take to the wing.

“Initial reports are that the target comprises locusts either one or two weeks of age which means we have a timeframe of about 10 days to treat them before they take to the wing.

“Insecticide has already been mobilised and due to the enormous size of the area and the fact it is beyond farmers’ ground control capacity we will attack these locusts from the air using fixed-wing aircraft.

“We expect it will take about four days to wipe them out. Authorities are now contacting landholders to inform them of immanent air operations across their land and to identify and environmental hazards.

“Meanwhile surveillance will continue and we expect more locusts to emerge, especially if the dry, warm run of weather continues.”

Minister Whan said today’s discovery was a timely reminder for farmers across the State to look for locusts on their properties, report findings to their LHPA and treat locusts before they take to the wing.

The State Government’s locust war plan includes:

• Chemical to treat 565,000 hectares of locusts;
• 50 aircraft on stand-by;
• LHPA rangers conducting surveillance; and
• More than 50 education workshops across the State.