The Perfect Swarm: Locusts Threaten Eastern Australia

As early as mid-August, eastern Australia may be hit with the biggest locust plague in more than 30 years. Without intervention, there could be more than $1.8 billion worth of damage to pastures, cereal crops and forage crops. Chris Adriaansen, the director of the Australian Plague Locust Commission, said that 5 million hectares of land could be affected. But he also said that Australian farmers are as prepared as they can be: aircraft contractors are organized for surveillance and insecticide aerial sprays, and farmers have been alerted to the risks. In Victoria, where the government has allocated $39.9 million to combat the plague, government authorities will have the power to enter farms and spray locusts without farmer consent. (See photographs of Australia's decade-long drought.)

The locusts have already chewed through some farmland. Heavy rainfall during the Australian summer led to higher numbers of the insects. Those that hatched in autumn managed to destroy 35,000 hectares of wheat and barley crops in Forbes Shire in central-west New South Wales. Graham Falconer, deputy mayor of Forbes, calculates $36.7 million worth of damage. Falconer believes that Australia wasn't prepared for the locusts in March and is even more worried about what will happen in August. "It's like a war," he says. "If we don't win it, we lose billions of dollars in crop."

Weather and modern farming techniques have combined to create this "perfect swarm," explains Greg Sword of the University of Sydney. Prolonged periods of warm weather allow female locusts to lay three pods (full of 50 eggs) instead of one. These days, locust eggs are able to survive longer due to direct drilling, a farming technique in which the seed is drilled directly into the unplowed soil. Twenty years ago, when plowing was more popular, the soil was turned, which exposed and, ultimately, dried the eggs. Now more are able to survive until they hatch.

Last Edited by The Hammer on 08/09/2010 10:39 AM