TOLL OF LOCUSTS

Hokitika Guardian, 6 September 1932, Page 3

TOLL OF LOCUSTS

IMMENSE DAMAGE DONE

•* SOUTH AFRICA MENACED,

In the fourth report of th 6 British Committee on Locust Control; Appointed in. lyab -to collect information abcjut .and,,-c,o.Hßider ipeans of -destroying ~thfe 'degert',-locust, it, is . stated i.tbati. since the presenfatiog of its. third report in duly, a new . and ~a still, moi'e serious danger to agriculture, .oi tropical Africa has arisen as the result ,bf .the appearance,..lll sw ®rms of, ; the 'iropacal uugiatoi’y ..locust, , ,while , a third’ speces, . the red lpeust, is-,.. also a serious menace in certein. p.al’te. The committee’s terms of. referepce• ;\\:ers therefore extended .in July,, 1931, to cover alii species,., of tropical African locust. .. , .... ' in, a survey of the damage done by the tropical migratory , locust tbq. conimittee, says that “during the first hall of 1930 breeding continued throughout West .'Africa, find the invasion ,reached the Atlantic coast in several places. enormous mass migration- ; “In about June and July of ,that. year a mass migration, took place on. an enpr!mohs iscale,. the travellmg eastward and south-eastward, invading and devastating the Übangi-Ohavi, tefritpry of French Equatorial Africa, and appearing in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and the northern districts, 0f... the Be'-

gian” Congo. Breeding, occurred .over, an Immense area extending, across almost the wfible of of Africa. *Tn .the next generation of^adult, locusts,',', which apfieared'/ai\ enfi of 1930 and in the ,'early months of 1931. a new find rather unexpected development took plage, as the,,fresh .swalmts fihifcH had; b,red-4n /the; -Congo npd in tfie took, a southerly directipn Of ft;ght : . ,As a .filie, southern .provinces of the, Anglo-Egyptian -Sudan, Uganda,’ Kenya,, and j. the . Tanganyilf; o Territory , -were , oyerrun' by . sivarms. arid dri the GbAgo the l fifif .spread southward to the,., man.dqte .territory of Ruarida-Urundi. Eggfi were laid oyfr wa-st ai*eas, and hdppers emerged it imiriehse numbers. All' efforts..at control were powerfess exterminate. t%iri. and served only to protect.the to a- limited extent.. ~, ~.. ~-V.rv,, “The 'flyirig locusts of the next, generation cofitmued to spread .duVipg the seedhd half 0 f T93i.‘ Thus, jßritrea,fiyas ihvaid'adf ih "Juiy-Octdber. bji.@,waTfns coming ' from the' Sudan, -, , NumerqusWarrns occurred iri Abyssinia, . arid British . Somaliland was also reached. Swarms'"from the " Territory: fiffisged into' Nortihfirri Rfiodasia, arid' probably also /eriteted Rortugueat' East Africa, 'ri the ' Belgian Cfi n g° the invasion spread along "tlie easte r n border, cfowii to. Lake Tariganyika. ; WiisT aFrtcan snuATioN. • V

“At .the pmfirit 'time- tlie. situation iri West Africa appears to show' sonie improvement though breeding is continuing' and Biwams ; ;.arg ; j- in Nigeyfii.. and some . dther. territeries. 'Ah exteii-give ‘ ariti-fiopppr campaign: .is , being waged in . Uganda,'- Keffya-,' find ;the Tanganyika Territory, .in the last two jifimed countries ’agairi^tfifiotii:'thefim'igra*. toi-y and the' 'desert',:’piin?t. of thevinfestetidn ,makes, i.t -iriiposgible to : anticipate any, "gifiaf! . ,reduction iri the' number of /’.ocustS .as a result of tut-ge contrcdl measures, which aim mainly, at th & defence'-of crops. , -. j ’ The invasion of further anea« by swarms’! belonging to the. liedt generation must, the ret ore, be expected, dome swarms had, .indeed,, already begun to cross;’ .into Nyassalarid ‘as .early as the beginning of February, 1932. Hoppers jvete , reported from Portuguese East Africa, early in .1932;, Southern Rtiodqsia. should also be considered in danger of invasion in the immediate,future. The latest information received refers ,tq the arrival of swarms in fihe Upioii of iSduth: Afxica.” IMMENSE DAMAGE. ’

The committee says that the damage caused by' all three iri'lhe period 192731 “citn safely be ’ estimated. ... as; \&.- cbeding £6,000,0(30. The expenditure on control measures 'during . the same period amounted to about £1,000,000, while, the number of of laboui spent by the population, in controlling locusts, was', " at* .a very conservative estimate, not ! less tbau., 28,000,000, Thus, the average losses due to locusts in each of trie last five.years/aniouhter to about £1,500,"000 arid oyer 5,500,003; working days.” ■ : ■

The course of the locust invasionduring'' this peirjpd, it, adds, ffellq>ys clearly the close dependence of the locust situation in any on e territory dn the general development of the pest over , wide' ‘ areas. This interdependence ■ renders 'almost nugMory isolated efforts to control for‘ the . most that can be achieved*''bV such efforts is. the protection of the crops in , a particular season. , v ‘ . “The experience of the last few years has convinced tho.se immediately concerned with the locust problem i n Africa' that it is impossible to control an outbreak once it has been permitted, to spread over ’large' areas. This conclusion cannot he disputed, but it does nofc necessarily fol’pw that all attempts at finding methods' of' controlling locusts are useless. On the contrary the inforfriation so far collected stresses once more the need for concentrating attention on investigations into’the original breeding areas of each .spe’cieiS *of locust. . “If these areas were known, it would be possible for each to .be, kept under control and prevented,, from, .■«..opdiner. Thi.s had been the pn'icv, 1 which we have urged from the outset i 1 of. our investigations. The unfortunate pvcrrf.s of thq last, two yeqrs/ h»ye 1 greatly emphasised the, need of . ~di« - coveri.nc the origin of locust invasions and the laws by which they are gov--’•norl, so tiKaf. a far-reaching; policy for the nrevefition of future outbreaks may ! be dCT^^^^d,’ , ’