POISONOUS DUST

Southland Times, Issue 22293, 7 April 1934, Page 5

POISONOUS DUST

ATTACK ON LOCUSTS DISTRIBUTION FROM THE AIR ENTIRELY NEW METHOD (British Official Wireless.) (Rec. 5.5 p.m.) 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,COO 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 in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, discovered by laboratory tests that adult locusts fell speedy victims to a spray of finely ground sodium arsenite. He conceived the idea that 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 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 be undertaken by Mr King himself. 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 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 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, British colonies and dependencies affected and the Anglo-Egyp-tian Sudan, has been making a survey of the breeding grounds and migratory habits of locusts. Swarms range over enormous areas, and hitherto attacks have been concentrated on locusts in their larvae or hopper stage, but these are ineffective where locusts inhabit thick bush country. Thus great importance attaches to the wholly new method of combating the plague.