MILLIONS of locusts are marching across the region in search of food.
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Burrumbuttock’s Rob Weidner was yesterday the latest Riverina farmer to find and report the pests.
“They’ll eat anything green,” he said of the locusts which are mobile and hungry but haven’t grown wings yet.
“They are just coming past the corner of one of my canola crops.”
Mr Weidner said his next door neighbour saw some recently and had put him on high alert.
Mr Weidner said he knew locusts were on the property earlier in the year, but was not aware of any egg beds on the property over winter.
Hume Rural Lands Protection Board senior ranger Allan Scammell will visit Mr Weidner’s property today to inspect the site.
Mr Scammell said there was a lot of control going on, with about 70 reports in the Hume board area.
“A lot of them are fairly scattered,” he said.
However, some are as thick as 1000 locusts per square metre.
“The problem we’ve got is it is so dry,” he said.
This means the patchy hatching of different age groups don’t band together, making control more difficult.”
It is not known what is next for the locusts because of the dry spring conditions.
“Some will probably die,” Mr Scammell said.
“It’s one positive to come out of drought.”
The locusts have been hatching on the Border for two weeks and can fly at one-month-old.
If they get enough condition on them, they may lay eggs or migrate 500km.
Mr Scammell said there was concern the high-density locust plagues north of Wagga would migrate to the region as they get “on the wing”.
He said it was unlikely aerial spraying would occur and organic farms had not been a problem this year.
To report locust activity in NSW contact rural lands protection boards and in Victoria contact the Department of Primary Industry on 136 186.
