I see that a number of bands have been detected around southern NSW in the last few weeks and that it is quite possible for a plague to develop.

Anyone seeing any signs or suffering any effects from these little buggers?

:cheers: Will

None here yet.
reports of them 40-50klm north of here.
Pity we cant harvest them & extract the moisture out of them to replace the rain.

For years, up here I had shocking grasshoppers that were eating literally everything. They've permanently damaged many of my trees, but they killed so many other things. I don't htink they're locusts, they're smaller than that. for several warm seasons they came, and then when the dry realy got bad, they tapered off.

These insect invasions are heartbreaking, 10 times so if they ate your crop, or teh food your animals depend on.

Were they flying ant? they might have been hatching nearby and eating you out to grow up.

Some hoppers at the mine but in very small numbers so far and not flying yet. might be different though if we get some wet weather. they can explode if there is grass where they hatch. No real danger of them doing much here. No green grass to eat here anyway.

What suck is that farmers are responsible for paying for control. they are not weeds and you cannot effectivly stop them from laying eggs on your property. It should be govt funded. For a farmer that has lost yet another crop and has no money, I would not blaming them for turning a blind eye to a hatching on their land.

Hello All,

I have hatchings on my property now in pastures... These little 1st instar nymph less than 4mm were inspected & identified yesterday by a Ranger with the Rural Lands Protection Board.... I have been provided chemical to spray next week once they have sized up to the 3rd instar body length of 8mm.
They are already beginning to band together & I am finding the sheep when walking give notice of where they are in this grass. The sheep don't like walking (with heads down) through these bands either as when disturbed they jump up into thier faces.

Local gardeners hold the belief that a liquid fertilizer known as Charlie Carp once sprayed out in the gardens will protect those plants from being eaten but I do not know if this is right or not...I will tell you if it is because my Wife has bought some & is making ready

The main control chemical is Fenitrothion but a biological control agent Metarhizium (Green Guard*SC) is available for sensitive areas adjacent to waterways etc & organic farming concerns.

Happy trails !

My hoppers were, I think, wingless grasshoppers. They were in shocking numbers for some summers, but not the last few. We had planted a spinney of silver birches, and some from that time are so damaged, they have barely any leaves except at the very ends of the branches, and are putting out lots of catkins. But at least they survived.

Goody, the Charlie Carp thing is a great hint, I'll try anything. I have extensive gardens here and lawns, plus hundreds of trees.

When it was happening, I contacted the rural lands protection board that soaks us for money even though we're residential, (Braidwood branch), and they said it wasn't their job to help with pest invasions.

There was some measure where you soaked grain? in soem chemical and left it in bands for them. Trouble is it'd do for the birds, too.

Hi ant !

I sympathise with what has happened your way ... I wonder if this Metarhizium (Green Guard*SC) which is made from an Australian fungus that attacks both locusts & grasshoppers might do the trick for you ? Bet it is as dear as poison ! To coin a phrase

It does take 8-18 days to kill them so best to only use on newly hatched as they will continue to eat during this time. By the way SC stands for suspended concentrate

Look up www.pestgenie.com.au for more info by submitting the chemical name not the brand name

Happy trails !

We need some-one to build this ..... a combine harvester with an Ag-vac instead of a seed-bin.

The idea is to suck up as many as possible , I guess it would keep the operator going for days, the locusts would go through a hammermill to spread them back over the paddock ..... in liquid form, turn the buggers into fertilizer .

Sounds good mate but would only work until they begin to fly. Prolly better just to spray them and let them die on the ground. Much quicker that your idea. There are "green" sprays now that don't really have nasty chemicals in them so control can be harmless to the other critters.

Mid December 2005 was when they were here last on masse.
Kids tried different methods of capture :p .....here's their rotary butterfly net method ...didn't work either
Kids chasing Locusts Dec 2005 (hit the HighQuality/Res button or you won't see the locusts)
They swarmed through here for three solid days and haven't seen them since .....might this be their year again??

hmm , do we ask the government to get the unemployed/unemployable to "catch" these locusts to supply the zoos around their area before they get the dole ? Could do it with canetoads too...

I've been out spraying here the last few weekends (great way to spend a weekend, but the window of opportunity on the St John's and Thistle is closing fast) and have been very pleased to see almost no grasshoppers. In the bad years, they were jumping up as winter ended, and I'd be O/S teaching and getting emails about how they were just destroying the garden, the trees, everything.

We used tanglefoot on the planted trees in their last summer, and it certainly helped (against the scale-farming ants, too).

Thats a great bit of video. I guessing lots of laughter involved as well. Brought back many childhood farm memories of trying to control the elements! :rolleyes:

Don't laugh but I have a rubber tyred roller here that was used in regard to planting canola & lucerne etc being towed behind the planter to level & compress the soil surface.
If these little blighters come marching through here as has happened not so far away at Illabo I will be hooking up for a roll of a time
Happy trails !

I haven't seen any sign of them out here on the southern tablelands yet, thankfully.

I saw what I think was a locust while spraying SpraySeed yesterday evening. It was huge, and kind-of spotty. I only saw one, and sprayed the crap out of it.

I've been viewing the little hoppers with concern, these wingless grasshoppers are horrible and destructive when they swarm. But this thing was humungous, like a banana. ON the news tonight, they reckoned the plague locusts were just NW of here, just beyond the western range. It's a worry.

My badddd
didnt even know there was an Aricultural Weather Forum!

SO i guess this post can work.

what a way to end up a really bad season, i think u guys have suffered enough from the lack of rain let alone...locusts!

Driving through NSW last week to visit mates near Parkes. Heard of the plagues but hit a fair wack of them after passing Finley right though to Condobolin.

Yesterday saw the arrival of Plague Locusts for my area. Contrary to popular believe locusts go where the wind takes them these came flying in from the West into an Easterly breeze. They are still with us today & at one stage this afternoon when driving a wheat truck towards the West I thought I saw what was a cloud of dust in front but no, this was a cloud of locusts on the wing. A PP Board Ranger describing this site today of these pests as being one of the thickest he has seen this year. Now for a trial with the Charlie Carp !
Happy trails

Let us know if the Carp thing works. While spraying on Monday, I found some patches rife with small wingless grasshoppers. I don't think they're in damaging numbers like a few years ago, but you never know.

there's been one around for years, it's called a
clover harvester.

TH

Who's got a locust problem at the moment?
This was the last time they were here in plague proportions
locust vid - mid Dec 2005

They rose a little last spring here again ....but the rains and warm we've had here in Vic has see them rise again now ....most local farmers haven't seen this here in their lifetimes so are peeved to plant in the coming season.
I'd be wondering what to do too ...the locusts are likely to rise again next spring and take out all the newly sprouted crops.
everyones on the lookout for breeding beds but missing a few will see these guys here again next spring I suppose.

Much the same here, though their numbers are a little less dense. But you can bet we'll be having problems this coming Oct/Nov/Dec.

It's a real shame the fed. gov't got rid of the national program. Individuals just can't deal with a proper plague.

I had huge numbers of wingless grasshoppers this summer, they were jumping up everywhere and actaully damaging weeds like Verbascum (Mullein), turning them into tattered rags. Tehy weren't so voracious up near my house but around 2003/2004 I had a shocking plague, they killed small trees, murdered parts of the garden, it was depressing and controlling them seems to be almost impossible in such a situation.

I'm worried that this summer's lot will have laid eggs and next summer will be a terrible plague.

anyone got any recipes?

tracking down those breeding beds is the key to this then ...best we all take a walk
Thing that's different about Vic is it's normal lack of summer rain ....this year we had plenty and why this is so foreign to us in nthcentral vic. I know it's pretty widespread but as bad as that dec05 vid at the moment here....and it's april

Latest on locusts hereabouts is they are eating just emerging crops like Canola and the early grazing wheats that have gone in. Pastures included of course

No rythm or reason as to what or what they will not eat at present.
It was said last year they do not like Lucerne but they sure do this year. Some fields of Wedgetail wheat have been totally eaten out to bare clods.
Thier numbers do not seem to be in plague like proportions but they are not moving on as is normally the case.

Have heard there is a new spray (brand name) Regent that is available....However it will only kill out what have landed to be sprayed at night or early morning before they take off.

What we need now is a break in the weather with rain and the beginning of the cold weather for nature to take care of them...This will hopefully happen next week.
Happy trails !

____________________
www.Myozspot.com.au

Goody, I would guess the reason they haven't moved on is that we haven't had any decent fronts and associated winds yet.

As you say, hopefully this weekend will be the beginning!

Some good reports about this in tonight's TV news, especially SBS and ABC. sounds utterly dire. locusts are huge, I saw the odd one around here this summer, like bananas with spots.

Wonder if it's possible to train a dog to find locust egg beds.
A few dogs with this ability would be invaluable as the locusts season ends.
Even dogs would be only able to cover so much country ...but I could imagine a dog that could smell out egg beds would be 100 times more useful than someone searching just by sight.

sounds a corney idea but I'll bet every farmer with locusts at the moment would see them as a useful tool in the overall fight ....and to my knowledge no ones tried it.

I'd have a try with my old bloke but his sensory array has gone down in overload caused by a bitch on heat over the hill .....he's on the chain this week. (wish you were allowed to do that with you kids when they are in heat )

one of the experts (well he had a dust coat on) said last night that next season will see a massive rise of locusts in victoria like no one has ever seen before. (possibly true as euro settlement has supplied the food)
Grim outlook that's for sure.
Every farmers worst nightmare if that occurs.....none I speak to have any experience with this amount and this late in the season and are all looking to the nth for advise.

Well, this morning stuck to my eastern side flyscreen, was a smallish locust! Small as-in not huge, but way bigger than normal grasshoppers. Great.

All the rain and floods and growth, and here come the locusts to eat it all.

I'm surprised no ones chatting about these locusts down in mexico here .....never seen anything like it at this time of year.
Still innundated in some areas ....promises of major swarms in the spring is obvious.

major annoyance for those collecting rain water ...all the spouts are out on the ground here ...and the tanks capped off for the moment.
Leads me to wonder how we will catch spring rains in the future if these locusts make a habit of hanging on through the summer autumn (this is dependant on summer rains again)

Needless to say, farming will be a nightmare.

We had a few small ones a few weeks ago, but it looks like the big buggas from up north are on their way down. Caught this one (3" from head to tail not including antennae) sitting on our laundry window... he'll be dispatched in due course.

Word I got yesterday from a friend who has a tame hay carter that operates taking hay from down south and around here up into markets in southern NSW and northern Vic.
Areas of pasture and crops around the likes of Swan Hill and down south of there and right across the area to the north of Swan Hill have been devastated by the hoppers.
Things were very quiet in the hay game a couple of weeks ago as there was lot of feed around after the rains in northern Vic and southern NSW as the pastures were really going great guns and then about a fortnight ago the hay guy's job suddenly started to pick up and he was carting a lot of hay into southern NSW and northern Vic again.
The grass hoppers had come through and pastures and crops that were 6" and 8" high and so dense that you walked on them, not in them, were bared to the ground until it looked like fallow in just a few days by the hoppers.
Some guys up there were close to tears as they had to start spending big again on hay to keep their cows and animals going for most of another winter and year until the pastures hopefully recovered in a few months time.

I feel for them as I know the dreaded knotted, twisted ache in the gut feeling only to well when you think you have a crop and an income for the year and in a few hours or days the year's income is just destroyed and you can't do a damn thing about it and you know that nobody outside of your fellow farmers who, like you are also in trouble will help or give a damn.

Not true ROM, many give a damn. I watch the young local blokes who have tried so hard the last few years working with l/care etc ....doing all the right things
They throw their hands in the air about these locusts coming down on them ....the young blokes are unfamilar but know the mess they are making to their farms right now.
We're having a bonnie tonite in response to the bathplugs .....all welcome as we encourage them to move sth to melb ...little hope of course

Nice pic Helen :kewl: .....ones cute, squillions are ugly.

OK AN, correction accepted but the whole loneliness and the sense of isolation just gets at one after the never ending series of disasters around here over the last decade and the steadily dropping prices and watching the debt and interest bill just getting larger and larger every year apparently with no end in sight to any of this.

My grandsons solution to the locusts ...we need a laugh sometimes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uqiHcgeZ8M

Whilst the locusts were not in what one could call "plague" proportions there were enough about here in places that did eat off some crops.
Now that we have had a few frosts they seem to have disapeared as a threat....Only a few are disturbed from driving over pastures. Some have said frosts will not kill them but it seems to have done the trick for me at least I think/hope
Happy trails !

Wasn't there [in the past at least] concerted effort to manage / erradicate the hoppers... Before they took to wing? It may have been in my dreams or other delusions but I seem to remember maps with identified infestations and the control measures?

Used to have a plague locust commission to map and conduct large scale eradications, in the 80s. I think some government got rid of it though, no votes in it.

Still is, ant
Australian Plague Locusts Commission
http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/locusts

Heard the head honcho on the radio the other morning asking for cooperation in reporting egg beds in NW Vic so that they an hit them in spring after hatching and when when they get to the banding but not yet flying stage.

We've reported a few beds here and they came and had a look ROM, they were grateful for the info and said they felt not many were reporting them
...ring them whether you assume someone else has or not is the rule.

I'm thinking not many readers (dare I say townies) are aware that the pasture is destroyed as feed the moment these locusts come over and spread their digestive salivas on everything.
The stock won't touch it after that ....and you are back to hand feeding.
Some of the farmers here are having a hell of a time.

Well - I think that it better get some publicity... And if it does not have the funding to do it, then your word of mouth in forums like these, letters to The Land and such is a must? Even if you have to repreat yourself once a year at critical times... No?

Vic always been on it ...as it's really never been a great issue ....I believe the most affected states give little in support and leave it to the land owners to some degree.
Vics had a web site map for ages to deal with where the locust beds are ....no other state has had this to my knowledge.

we may see the assistance fall away in Vic if it gets too hard though.
i see the site at www.dpi.vic.gov.au has disappeared ....at least I can't find the old locust map of vic.

I've had a chance to have a quick look at the site ROM put up... It looks pretty comprehensive... But from what is mentioned here - maybe the issue is that the reports are coming late or not at all.

Lots of cockies frequent this. I reckon that there should be a regular update on these pages (and pages like Karl's site) so that people are aware of reporting opportunites. so that none needs to have that "dreaded knotted, twisted ache in the gut feeling "!

DDT rules OK!

have to agree Arnost ....been doing that about a few things

This business with the locusts happened here before i believe in 74 ( I arrived 80)....was followed by the usual cycles and has come around again I suppose.
Wasn't that outstanding in the record I realise so we can only hope they won't be outstanding this time .....only hope the weathers unfavourable for the locusts in this coming spring .....problem is 'unfavourable' would be a nice warm 2 inches of rain and then 2ft of snow a fortnight later ....bit unlikely.

DPI site must have been down the other day is Here
used to be a map there

Oops
but I'll just leave this here so there is no confusion with the site I posted...is where locusts should be reported
http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/locusts

Hi Arnold,
There are good maps in the Australian Plague Locust Commission Locust Bulletins:
http://www.daffa.gov.au/animal-plant-health/locusts/bulletins/locust-bulletin-May2010
Some agronomists and I went looking for an interactive map to report egg laying on and couldn't find one, so set this up: http://www.locustmap.com.au
to fill the gap until something else happens. Hopefully it won't confuse things too much, but anyone is welcome to record egg laying there too.

We've got heaps of laying beds at home but due to dad being very ill I have not really been thinking of it too much. I know where they are and will report them as soon as things settle down a bit. They are the worst in living memort around home atm. All sheep feed is gone and some crops are gone too. Very dry to boot so many have not sown or crops are yet to emerge and waiting for rain. Sort of a mixed blessing really. but need a rain and some bloody cold weather ASAP

got to within about 20 km seriously thick wereas i have them on about a 2/10 scale were actually on sort of thick for one day then we had a southerly change about 10 days ago and they havent reapperad.

march was wet as was firt 2 weeks of april not a drop since but seeding away as ive killed weeds twice.
wheat wheat and more wheat

Just checked into this thread and noticed the last post was back in May.

Authorities are saying this could be the worst locust season in 30 years. Would be a crying shame if it was, what with the happy conjunction of high wheat prices and a great season in prospect.

Just hope those responsible for spraying can keep on top of this and nip the problem in the bud.

Problem is though, ULD, that a lot of the beds were laid down in newly cultivated/sown soil and so the hatchings won't be visible until the crop falls over.

Our best hope is that we get the crops harvested before the worst of the plague hits in Nov/Dec.

There appears to be a shortage of spray as well:

linky

Nov/Dec?? I would have thought they'd rise earlier than that Will.
It will be big when ever it happens.
I'm taking the opportunity to replace all the guttering on the house over the period (will have my house tanks capped off while the buggers are about anyway)
....and early hopefully before the year gets too hot.

Local graingrowers are pretty despondent here as they have much bigger problems than I.
Even the sheep blokes are already worrying about feed availability and it's ongoing cost in the season.
Wonder what a fat lamb will bring this spring? ...cost of those lamb cutlets will be closing on gold prices in the new year. :rolleyes:

I notice inland eastern Qld is tipped to have a rainfall event this week. Can anyone tell me what effect heavy rain over locust hatching/egg areas have? Could it drown the hatchlings?

Heard program on ABC rain dosn't harm eggs as they are well protect in there cocoons. Not sure about hatchlings.

Just astounds me where their focus lays.
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/locust...0919-15hz7.html
They will make it a city problem somehow!!! :rolleyes:

this is the place for vic news on locusts
http://new.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/plague-locusts/media-releases

I'm having real problems believing this and can barely understand the extraordinary level of ignorance and the lack of any level of intelligence that leads to comments like this!
Just heard on the Vic ABC Country Hour a minute or so ago.
Texted apparently from somewhere around "City central" and not just one instance either.

"Farmers should capture the locusts and relocate and release them!"

Is this a hoax or are some of these central city, latte drinking, do gooder, FW's so utterly detached from the real world out there that they are pathologically incapable of even understanding in even a dim way the truly enormous numbers of locusts, the area that these pests cover, the potential for massive damage and losses to the crops and native vegetation that lies in the path of the swarms, the heartache and the enormous personal costs that this plague has the potential to inflict.
Or are some of these city xxxxxxxx's just so totally and truly out of their infinitely limited and tiny cotton picking minds?

Sadly, stupid comments like the above from a small ignorant section of city dwellers just raises even more contempt for the bias and utter ignorance, usually undeserved, of city dwellers in the minds of the country dwellers and rural people.

I saw those reports... "huge locust plague coming to devestate farmland... but more importantly! it might affect the horse racing and the Melbourne Cup..." oh for god's sake! It just doesn't affect these people at all.. if food prices go up, they'll blame "inefficient farmers" and then get upset if their trains or buses don't run on time.

For what it's worth, I took the 'Melbourne Cup' comments as being an attempt to generate a cheap headline, whether by the media themselves or the supplier of the pertinent quotes.

I read the same article and came to the same conclusion as well.

Ridiculous comments from some of your typical city dwellers, but not surprising given how little they know about non-metro areas, the environment etc etc.

Small hatchings are now taking place around me. Some 20 people reported in with hoppers this week before this rain hit

Local farmers gone up to Quamby area to help his son spraying emerging hoppers on his property. Business as usual other than that ....but things will change I'm betting.

starting to get serious at the dpi website now.
http://new.dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/pests-diseases-and-weeds/plague-locusts

Must buy myself a roll of shade cloth before its price skyrockets.

We have had to spray a few bands of locusts this week as they are now on the move with 1 band 500m by 100m with a few thousand individuals per square metre.

I have only got one bad area of hoppers and so far I have sprayed it 4 times so far and will probably do it again next week. They are still hatching 4 weeks after I first saw them and they are still thick at times. Found one patch today that has been sprayed 3 times and they were the thickest I have seen them so far. I have to go back to the mine tomorrow night so I will put on a residual on the grass beside the crop to hopefully give a barrier. So far they have not damaged the crop and have not had any banding here but not letting them band as the only place they have to go is my crop and I would rather keep spraying. Only 1 or 2ha so not costing much anyway.

Thanks guys.
Keep the info up please so at least those of us further south can stay with the situation as it is affecting different areas.
Haven't seen any hoppers down here 20 kms north of Horsham as yet but we wait!

I had to Spray another couple bands on the road side today, waiting for pirsa to do something is like waiting for christmas.

Client reports quite a few locusts around Boort VIC

I have killed probably 30 trillion all on the roadside but still they come! Gone a bit quiet last couple of days here but still hopping across the road couple of ks away. Merbein.

Yeah I have sprayed some areas up to 5 times because they are hatching still. For me they are all along the fence lines and so are pretty easy to control. Had to spray all around the wheat as the little buggers was all around the outside of it but so far have not found bands within the crop. Think I have got the majority of them now but still finding eggs in the soil so keeping an eye out. Have to odd one that escaped the first sprays now over 5 weeks old and are about half grown. Not many of these but enough to notice them. But then again once yopu are on the lookout for them you tend to notice every one.

Reports of locusts in suburban Melbourne riding the northerlies- http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/11/12/3064584.htm. Never thought they reached the metro areas.

OK these are locusts in bands. Took them at home on the farm as I was spraying them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U2huk2xszA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8lyoA8i0NM

Hi there Adon just looking at your clips and noticed our local inventor of the locust muncher always get a bit of a laugh he is a bit out there.

where the locusts haven't been sprayed around here they are now breeding and on the wind and with the authority seemingly doing nothing or lost the paperwork or red tape the battle is mostly lost in a few areas and can only emagine what its like in the hard to access parks and back country its gonna be interesting to see where it all ends up.

They've made it to our place... dozens of them flying around the spotlights this evening... just as the vegie patch was looking good after surviving millipedes and earwigs... damn it. For all the good it'll do, I'll get onto PIRSA tomorrow morning.

Media reports are out today saying a huge swarm of plague locusts has crossed over into northern Victoria last night. This swarm is something like 25k long and was in the Hay region of New South Wales.

A couple of city living chasers spent an afternoon around Donald in NW VIC today,I understand that its not "bad" yet but geez they were pretty thick at times and looking across fields there were just clouds of em. Real eye opener for us city folk! Had to come back to St Arnaud to clean windscreen cuz I couldnt see out! Noticed locals had netting on front grill and sometimes in front of windscreen. We now know why!

First locusts [ The "grasshoppers" of the times gone by! ] arrived in Horsham this evening.
Quite a few and quite thick in some locations about 20 k's to the north of Horsham today but not in serious numbers as in swarms as yet.

The Locusts hit Echuca this morning and constantly allday, Rich River Bowls club was trying remove them from the Bowling Green with little success. I believe the golfers were given a 1 putt on the putting greens. I arrived at the Echuca Bowls club about 12:30pm and the rinks were absolutely covered with them and to make matters worse they were dying there. we managed to scrape enough off to be able to play on 2 of the 4 greens. The other 2 greens brown with grasshoppers and by the end of the day those greens had been eaten out to brown greens. The were still swarming at sunset heading South we need a strong North wind to push them into the sea now.

Noticed a few in the paddocks around town yesterday, but no where near plague proportions yet.

I'd heard a rather large band had moved from western NSW into Vic the other day. It was reportedly 25km across or in length?

Quite bad at Ouyen today. I am on the 3rd level of a mining plant in the control room and they are pretty thick anf all flying south. Not as bad as April yet but will get a lot worse I reckon. Would be scary to think what they would be like if everyone didn't spray them.

Been thick around lameroo last few days and this morning they are everywhere in Geranium.

there were a few patches of locusts either sitting on the road or flying at low level between temora and griffith yesterday. Certainly not in plague proportions, as there were 5 km stretches with hardly any and then you might see a hundred or so ahead and collect 4 or 5 as you drove through.

After a few weeks of having the hoppers under control via spraying they have flown in overnight in the last couple days and they are breeding quite happily during the day so numbers will be on the rise again soon with 200mm in a week here.

Plaque locusts have arrived here now and their numbers growing by the day as North West winds carry them in.
In places they are bad and to drive through them on the Hwy is like hitting a hail storm
I am truck driving atm delivering harvest grain and have to clean the windscreen every day to see
Happy trails !

Yes I've certainly noticed their increasing numbers Goody. On my way up to the Golf Club last night I drove past the bowling club and their greens were a brown, writhing mass!

Cleaning our windscreens and the front end is now a morning chore down at the depot otherwise the buildup just becomes too much!

They are bad through the Mallee atm. The other day while out on the header there was a constant flow of locust's for three hours moving south/west past me and I mean thousands not just a few here and there. As they approached the header they would shoot up in the air flow over me.

Yesterday they were on the move again to the west south/west and as they got to a line of thick scrub they all bunched up along the trees. Looked like a fog moving along the tree line.

Just went for a drive north of Munno Para to Gawler and they're moving south and now start to be seen from DALKEITH ROAD and north. I suspect they will be in my backyard by tonight and my garden will be desecrated by tommorow night. GOOD BYE TOMATOES,,,i should take a before photo and after photo .... and for some reason i've just planted a heap of lettuces / beetroot and cucumber..... ALL MAIN COURSE FOOD FOR THE LOCUSTS,,,,, . The wind is blowing northeast and temp is around 30 degrees, as if that has anything to do with locusts movements?

I'm now seeing a few cars driving around with a splatter mess and even a few shade cloth screens in front of their grills to minimise radiator blockage.

A guy at work who lives at cockatoo valley claims there just about eating his lawn to the ground and their thick in places.

[sarcasm mode] No Mr. Rann... we don't have a locust problem in SA!!! [ end sarcasm mode]

Allegedly, the state government only gave PIRSA enough funding to spray 10% of the locusts. According to a source there, the worst of the locusts have not hit us yet in SA.

WG, grab yourself some shadecloth to drape over the vegies... just not green as apparently it attracts the locusts even more. A light sandy colour or white is ideal to let the sunshine through.

The locusts are pretty thick right through tailem bend and south of tailem bend, but they havent reached Meningie or any of the Coorong yet. Means I have to wash the car though....:(

As of tuesday 29th dec i've personally seen locusts at
Truro to Nuriootpa with light to medium density
Munno para - light dustings and sprinklings (ncluding the odd one in the backyard)
Hillbank - Main north road @ old spot hotel - a smattering
Para wira recreation park - light to medium desity

First locust spotted about two weeks ago...just a single though. Today I counted about a dozen throughout the day. The little blighters certainly get around...

All around semaphore.

The chook thinks she's died and gone to heaven...she hunts them relentlessly.

Have they ever thought about dropping hundreds of chooks on the swarm? Probably not feasible

Drove up to Evanston for New Years and there was the odd locust hitting the windscreen as I drove along the northern expressway.

Spotted a locust outside my front garden today.

So, how did you go in the end?

Still some locusts about here, but not in the numbers that they were and certainly none around the house. Further south around Saddleworth they were still in small but dense swarms last Wednesday.

I'm heading to Echuca next weekend via Morgan and then along the Murray. It will be interesting to note how things are fairing in those necks of the woods.

Saw quite a few around Salisbury today as I was walking home roughly 3-4 in each group.

Only seen a couple in the last few days

Might cop a bit of flack for this but I kind of like locusts.... and I reckon they get a bad wrap. They were here long before us and AFAIK our farming practices have helped encourage them to plague. Not saying that the locust should get priority over our food/livelihoods...but feel a bit sorry for them.

Might be a different story if they were tucking into my tomatoes and grapes...I'd almost prefer a hoard of hungry bugs to microscopic fungus that hides in the soil and wrecks my garden (downy mildew )

They are known a "plague locusts" for a very good reason, Christopher.
They were here in their plagues long, long before mankind arose on this planet let alone before white man settled in Australia some two hundred and eleven years ago.
If you know any ancient history or the biblical writings, you will know that plagues of locusts were just another of those natural malflections that regularly imposed itself on mankind's best endeavors, usually with some very serious outcomes in those ancient times as food sources from the staple plants were destroyed by the great plagues of locusts.
Plague locust stories are told often in the fables and writings of those long past times.
And modern agriculture had precisely nothing to do with the onset of the modern plagues.
As ever, it is just another of nature's great timeless cycles of life and death, this time of the locusts.

One day when you might be in the situation of just getting your entire year's income in say just one cheque.
If the plague locusts come through, take that cheque, your year's total income and drop it in amongst the locusts.
Perhaps they will destroy that cheque, your year's income, in only a few minutes and there is no replacement cheque to cover the past year of your work and endeavours.

What would your reaction be as you watched your year's income being destroyed and there wasn't a damn thing you could do about it?

Be very careful what you wish for.
You might get it!

Well said Rom, unless you've seen or lived through what these locusts can eat in a matter of hours, you are unable to understand the amount of damage they can do.
Early December here at Echuca they completely bared two bowling greens back to brown earth in an afternoon. One we've had to replant.If that had been a crop it would have been devistating.

Enjoy your trip across to Echuca Helen. If this weather keep up we might have a flood for you.

The feeling of helplessness as locusts close in must be devastating. I get the odd infestation of wingless grasshoppers, their smaller relatives, and we had a big infestation of them back around 2003. They ate their way through everything green. They killed most of the garden, many trees, and there was nothing we could do. What those huge spotted mongrels could do in numbers beggars the imagination.

I've seen a few locusts around my place in recent weeks and my heart stops while I wonder if finally, we're going to cop a plague too. They're so massive.

Losing your entire crop and year's pay is something farmers face from so many fronts. A few years back we had a late frost as the apple trees were at bud-burst, and the blossoms were crisped before they were pollinated. So that year, my mother worked but there was no payday. I think we got a grand total of 5 cases of apples. Naturally, losing the entire crop to a frost was bad management on her part, inefficient farmers etc etc (insert current cliche being run by the city media).

So ROM when do the mice arrive? ....or is that next year off the back of this wet?

We have eggbeds emerging again here for another round of these little guys


I'm guessing we will see a massive rise from the eggbeds off this rain we are having this morn.
Rain is sustaining these outbreaks and is the main reason why this is occurring in the first place.
......has also put payed to any standing crop in the area this morn ....who'd be a farmer.
about to ring one I have been helping out as he will be devastated this morn ....might recommend he trade the header for a round bailer if this keeps up ...or go into rice farming.

Deleted; Wrong thread

Cheers for schooling me mate One of the things I love here is that if you're wrong - people will damn well tell you about it.

I can empathize with the farmers, as usual I typed before I used my brain and was joking a little bit.

Can't imagine how horrible it'd be to lose a years pay over something totally out of your control...it'd drive me literally crazy, I'd be a paranoid wreck if I was a farmer so I can respect what they do.

No worries Christopher.
It does'nt do anyone any harm to float up your thoughts here and it earns a lot more respect when one is prepared to admit that there are many things in this world that none of us can really understand unless we personally experience them for ourselves.

And all credit to you for your ready acceptance of an explanation from an old farming geezer who is inclined to get a bit fed up with all the flak that comes a farmer's way and so gets a bit irate at times.