FIGHTING THE LOCUST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19615, 20 October 1925, Page 10

FIGHTING THE LOCUST.

COSTLY UNDERTAKING. HEAVY BURDEN FOR SOUTH AFRICA, (From Oas Own Cobbesfondent.) PIETERMARITZBURG, September 10. Every country has got its own particular natural posts, and South Africa’s particular one at present seems to be the locust. Fighting this pest has cost the Union over ,£700,000 during the last two years. The extraordinary inteusivencss. of the locust visitations during the past two years arc well illustrated by the comparative Government expenditure in combating them during that period and during the previous biennial period. In 1931-22 the expenditure was £45,000. and in 1922-23 £58,000; total £IOI,OOO. In 1923-21 the expenditure was no les s than £324,000, and in 1934-25 £877,000; total, £7ol,ooo—or nearly seven times the former total. As to the number of swarms of locusts destroyed, there were 118,662 swarms destroyed in 1921-22; 286,370 in 1922-23; 961,200 in 1923-24; and 902,270 swarms in li'24-25. How quickly locusts multiply can be realised when it is stated that one female is capable of laying between 300 and 400 eggs. This is a'heavy burden on the Union, bat as Mr Rodney H. Williams, the able head of the Locust Administration, told the Pretoria Rotary Club a few days ago, tie expenditure has been justified many times over by the grand result that the Union has. Tin consequence, been able to produce this year a record maize crop, and to save the Union from a loss of millions of pounds. / South Africa, with its vast unoccupied And waterless tracts of land is, as Mr Williams says, one of the most difficult countries, if not the most difficult country, in which to irradicate locusts. It is satisfactory, however, to be assured that our combative methods are admitted by other countries to be the moat up to date in the world. It ia not generally known, but previous to the adoption of Mr Claude Fuller’s method of locust destruction —that is the poison method -r-every conceivable method o'f destroying locusts, such as trapping, screening, burning, trampling, rolling, etc., had been tried and turned down by the Government as not being universally adaptable. Mr Claude Fuller, it may be mentioned, ia the assistant chief of the Division of Entomology, and previous to union was Principal Ratal Government Entomologist, He is the author of several papers on economic entomology published in. the official journals of Rew South Wales and Western Australia, including “Some Gallmaking Coccidm” and “Some Coccid® of Western Australia,” Before coming to South Africa Mr Fuller was Entomologist of the Rew South Wales Technological Museum. The problem of tackling the locusts far removed from water has, to a very large extent,, been solved by Dr Mally’s method of dusting the locusts with very fine arsenite of soda powder. This method and the use of camel and motor transport have made it possible to tackle locusts in their hitherto undisturbed haunts.

The methods now adopted, we learn from Mr-Williams, are:—(l) Spraying the locusts with a locust poison consisting of areenito of soda solution, pure or mixed with treacle; (2) dusting the locusts by mean s of bellows or distributors with arsenite of soda powder; (3) bailing the locust with dry manure or bran moistened with sweetened poison. Freshly killed locusts also make excellent bait. The provision of water is a very important matter, and boreholes have to bo sunk before a campaign can be carried on in the Kalahari country The greatest assistance received from the natural 'enemies of the locust was that rendered by a fungus (Empusa Grylli) which developed in the northern districts of South West Africa and spread into Ngamiland. The fungus flourished as a result of incessant rains. The prospects for next season are happily considerably brighter than they have ever been before during the present cycle.