LOCUSTS have reacted to the slowly warming temperatures, with reported hatchings edging up each day.
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As of Tuesday, there were more than 80 confirmed reports of locust hatchings in the key problem states of NSW, Victoria and South Australia, with this figure likely to rise above 100 before the end of the week.
The most hatchings have been reported in NSW, where there were 51 reports of hatched eggs as of Tuesday evening, according to the state government’s locust update.
Meanwhile, hatchings began in earnest in Victoria, with over 30 confirmed cases of new locust activity recorded, primarily in the north-west of the state, around Mildura.
In South Australia, there have been less than five official reports, coming from both the north-eastern pastoral zone of the state and at Pinnaroo in the Mallee.
It will now be a tense waiting game for growers anxious to control the insects.
Locust control officials continue to warn landholders that the best time to control the pests will not be until approximately two weeks after they hatch.
Victorian state controller for locusts Russell McMurray said growers needed to wait until the locusts had formed into bands.
“The best time to spray locusts is approximately two weeks after they hatch, when they form dense, slow-moving bands on the ground and before they can fly,” Mr McMurray said.
NSW is on the look-out for a big weekend of locust hatchings, due to warmer temperatures, with the mercury forecast to climb to the mid 20s in areas such as the Central West over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the state’s north-west continues to be the hot-spot for hatchings for the moment, with the NSW government reporting a 600 metre long dense band of locust nymphs was also found on a property 30km south of Carinda, in the state’s north west.
With the increase in warm weather, Gordon Berg, of the Australian Plague Locust Commission said all landholders needed to be checking all known and potential egg-bed sites now.
He said locusts normally preferred harder and barer areas, compared to those covered with more vegetation.
Although not considered such a hot-spot for damage, spectacular bands of plague locusts are building up in south-west Queensland and are being controlled by that state’s government.
There was one report of a swarm of locusts five kilometres wide near Clermont.
Aerial spraying for the locusts is continuing in the region.
