LOCUST PEST

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 97, 7 April 1934, Page 9

LOCUST PEST

TROPICAL AFRICA Large-Scale Attack from Air POISON DUST FROM PLANES British Official Wireless Service. RUGBY, April 5. A large-scale attack by clouds of poisonous dust distributed from an aeroplane will be made upon locust swarms which cause annually £1,500,000 worth of damage in tropical and sub-tropical Africa. This new method was evolved by Mr H. H. King, who two years ago, when Government entomologist to the AngloEgyptian Sudan, discovered by laooratory tests that adult locusts fell speedy victims to a spray of finelyground sodium arsenate. He conceived the idea that the swarms might be 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 many problems involved were obtained from the Royal aircraft establishment at Farnborough, the Imperial Institute of Entomology, and the chemical defence research department of the War Office, and all that is now required is a practical full-scale trial. This will be undertaken by Mr King himself. Ho sails to-morrow for Northern Rhodesia, where an aeroplane chartered from Imperial Airways and fitted with special apparatus and a consignment of finely powdered sodium arsenate 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 the efficacy and practicability of the scheme. If it is successful, details of the method will be made more available in all territories where locusts menace agriculture. During the last five years the committee of the Economic Advisory Council, financed partly by the Empire Marketing Board, British colonies and dependencies affected and the AngloEgyptian Sudan, has been making a survey of the breeding grounds and migratory habits of locusts. The swarms range over enormous areas. Hitherto attacks have 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.