WAR ON LOCUSTS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18366, 7 April 1934, Page 5

WAR ON LOCUSTS

ATTACK FROM THE AIR AN EXTENSIVE CAMPAIGN POISON DUST CLOUDS (British Official Wireless.) Rec. 10 a.m. RUG BY , April 5. A large-scale attack by clouds ol’ poisonous dust distributed from an aeroplane will bo made upon the locust swarms which cause annually £ 1.500,C00 worth of damage in tropical and subtropical Africa. This new method was evolved by Mr. 11. 11. King, who two years ago, when Government entomologist to the AngloJvgyptiau Sudan, discovered hv laboratory tests that adult locusts fell a speedy victim to a spray of finely ground sodium arsenite. He conceived the idea that the swarms, might he successfully countered by discharging a cloud of this poisonous dust from an aeroplane flying across the line of their flight. llis 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 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 lie undertaken by Mr. King himsef. He 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 arsenite, awaits his arrival. Locusts are abundant in this territory, and it is hoped that Mr. King, during his flights next month, will he able to collect sufficient data for the locust control committee to judge the efficacy and practicability of the scheme. If successful, details of the method will be made 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, the British Colonies and dependencies affected, and Aiiglo-Egyptian Sudan, has been making a survey of the breeding grounds and migratory habits of locusts. Swarms range over enormous areas. Hitherto the attacks have been concentrated on locusts in their larval or hopper stage, hut these are ineffective where locusts inhabit thick bush country. Thus great importance attaches to the wholly new method of combating the plague.