LOCUST SWARMS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21769, 7 April 1934, Page 11

LOCUST SWARMS

NEW FORM OF ATTACK POISONOUS DUST SPRAY FROM AEROPLANE DEMONSTRATION ARRANGED Bv Telegraph—Press Associalion—Copyright (Received April C, 5.35 p.m.) British Wireless RUGE'Y. April 5 A large-scale attack by clouds of poisonous dust distributed from an aeroplane is to be made upon swarms of locusts which every year cause damage to the extent of £1,500,000 in tropical and sub-tropical Africa. This new method was evolved by Mr. H. H. King, who two years ago, when lie was Government entomologist to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, discovered by laboratory tests that adult locusts fell speedy victims to a spray of finelyground sodium arsenite. He conceived the idea that swarms might be successfully countered by discharging clouds of this poisonous dust from an aeroplane flying across the line of their flight.

Mr. King's suggestion was taken up by the Locust Control Committee of the Economic Advisory Council, and the funds were provided out of the colonial development fund. Practical Trial to be Made

Technical advice and assistance on many of the 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. All that is required now is a practical full-scale trial. This is to be undertaken by Mr. King. He will sail to-morrow for Northern Rhodesia, where an aeroplane chartered from Imperial Airways and fitted with special apparatus and a consignment of finelypowdered sodium arsenite will await his arrival.

Locusts are abundant in that 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 his scheme. If it is successful details or the method will be made available in all territories where locusts menace agriculture. Enormous Areas Affected

During the last five years a committee of the Economic Advisory Council, financed partly by the Empire Marketing Board and the British colonies and dependencies affected in 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 ."effective where locusts inhabit thick bush °°Great importance, therefore, attaches to Mr. King's new method of combating the plague.