THE LOCUSTS COME

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 93, 17 October 1934, Page 4

THE LOCUSTS COME

OVER SOUTH AFRICA

THE PLAGUE OF THE REDWING

HUMANITY'S DEFENCE

Tho ktlest and worst locust invasion uf South Africa is over for tho time being, says tho "Manchester Guard-j ian." Reddish brown clouds drift j over tho mountains, a sinister reminder, that millions of insects arc on the wing, preparing to lay eggs for nest season's battalions, but for tho moment there is an armistice, welcomed by everyone who was engaged in fighting tho pest. Combat with the Redwing locust, a variety new to South Africa, is no sinecure. It lays its eggs in relatively small clutches of several thousand over a wide area, whereas the eggs of the brown locust are deposited in one largo clump. To offset this tlie Redwing remains in the hopper stage for a, much longer period than the brown; tho fighters havo from six to eight weeks in which to wage their warfare. The most effective way of destroying hoppers is to spray them with arsenate of soda. The Government of South! Africa organised "locust gangs" recruited from tho ranks of the unemployed and from farmers ruined by drought and the depression. In parties of ten under tho leadership of a foroman they were sent all over the country, equipped with spray pumps and poison, to clear "unoccupied" farms belonging to absentee owners and to assist farmers who found themselves unable to cope with the pest single-handed. Poison and pumps were issued free 'of charge to the farmer? themselves. CAMPING HARDSHIPS. But unfortunately tho supplies were totally inadequate. The locust gangs were often short •of poison, and had perforce to remain idle (thereby losing their pay) while they waited for fresh supplies. Theirs was no easy task. They i had to travel light, for the two wagons allotted to each gang were used to transport water and poison as well as the equipment of the men. Tho areas most heavily infested were often in tho sparsely-populated fever districts, where hospitals are unknown and doctors few and far between. The nightly dose of quinine was not always an efficient safeguard against malaria, and soon "casualties" began to drift back to the towns. There were accidents with the poison, too, and more than one man had his faco burnt or his hands injured by the dangerous spray. In the wilder parts of tho Northern Transvaal a guard had nightly to bo set to keep the camp fires going. Lions prowled round the transport donkeys, who huddled within their "skerrns" of cut thorn bush. Torrential rains, although they made lighter the task of carrying water, increased the discomforts of men camping without tents, and the resulting stagnant pools added to the danger of malaria. Grass growing to a height of five or six feet had somehow to bo cleaved of hoppers, which scattered as soon as they felt tho moisture from tho spray pump. Reluctant natives had to be threatened or cajoled into giving assistance. Many farmers havo lost the whole of their crops of maize and kaflir corn, while the future of tho High Veldt winter crops looks extremely dark. Unfortunately, it was thought, that adequate supplies of poison would soon bo forthcoming and a great deal of poison was sprayed away in the veldt. Too late tho farmers learnt that they would have done better to husband what little poison they could get to protect their cultivated lands. Natives living in the Crown lands, j native reserves, and locations were perhaps worst off of all. There was at first some idea among the Bantu people (at any rate in the Northern Transvaal) that the pest was sent by the spirits, and best uot interfered with. The most a pious M'Shangaau would do was to kneel on tho edge of his lands and implore his "little grandmothers" to leave him enough food for himself and his family. Soon, however, it became apparent that the "little grandmothers" paid no heed to these entreaties, and on tho whole the natives havo done their best to co-operate with their white masters in fighting the hoppers. THE FIRST CHANCE. Tho policy, however has been to give Europeans tho first chance of getting poison, and since there has never been a sufficient quantity natives in Crown lands and reserves have had to stand helpless whilo the eggs hatched into hoppers and the hoppers grew from tiny insects into the two-inch-long locusts which devoured their crops. They mado pathetic attempts to save their fat mealie cobs, their long N'yati heads, and their heavy bunches of kaffir corn. They lit little fires so that the smoke might turn the marauders from their course. They beat tho on-coming hordes with leafy branches. They drove their flocks and herds round and round their cultivated patches of land. It was all useless. Sooner or later the swarms completed tliir work of destruction, and all that was left of a once flourishing crop was a few bare, riddled stalks. Another year of hunger has to bo faced. Some of tho more far-seeing gathered the half-grown locusts and dried them for food for the, hard times to come; It is now certain that' at least, one more year of fighting locusts lies before South Africa. Organisation will no doubt be improved and supplies be more plentiful by tho time the next hatching begins, but tho task, if it has to bo carried out by human agency alone, is a formidable one. Fortunately, there is a parasite which attacks locusts and is, perhaps, the means of control provided by Nature. Winds, too, sometimes blow untold hordes out, to sea, whilo locust-birds add their quota to the work of ridding the land of the pest.