THE LOCUST PLAGUE

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 82, 7 April 1934, Page 13

THE LOCUST PLAGUE

NEW METHOD OF ATTACK

POISON DUST BY AEROPLANE

(British Official Wireless.) EUGBT, April 5. A large-scale attack by clouds of poisonous dust. distributed from an aeroplane is to be made.upon the'locust swarms which cause annually £1,500,000 damage in tropical and subtropical Africa. . , This now method was evolved by Mr. H. H.. King, who two years ago when Government entomologist to AngloEgyptian Sudan, discovered by laboratory tests that adult locusts fell speedy victims to a spray of finely ground sodium arsenite. He conceived the idea that swarms might bo successfully countered by discharging a cloud of this poisonous dust from an aeroplane flying across the line of their flight. His suggestion was taken up by the locust control committee- of the Economic Advisory Council, and. funds were provided by the Colonial Development Fund.

Technical advice and assistance on the. many problems involved wore obtained from Boyal Air Craft establishment, the Farnborough Imperial Institute of Entomology, and the Chemical Defence Research Department of the War Office, and all now required is a practical full-scale trial. This is to be undertaken by Mr. King himself.

Tomorrow he sails for Northern Kliodesia, where an aeroplane chartered from Imperial Airways and fitted with special apparatus and a consignment of finely-powdered sodium arsenite await his arrival.

Locusts are abundant in this territory, and it is hoped that Mr. King during his flights next month will be able to collect sufficient data for the locust control committee to judge of the efficacy and practicability of the scheme. If successful, details of the method will be made more available in all territories where locusts are a menace to agriculture.

. During the last fivo years n. committee of the Economic Advisory Council, financed partly by the Empire Marketing Board, the British colonies, arid the dependencies affected, and AngloEgyptian Sudan, has been making a survey of the breeding grounds and migratory habits of locusts. ,

Swarms of locusts range over enormous areas. Hitherto attacks hare been concentrated on locusts in their larval", or hopper, stage, but these are, ineffective where locusts inhabit thick bush country. Thus great importance attaches to this wholly new method of combating the plague.