Locusts, Plague or Bounty?

The paranoia and media hype surrounding the locust "plague" of Northern Victoria, needs a reality check; and the locust, just another part of our declining natural environment, needs a fair go. Historically locust "plagues", in combination with lack of resources, poor transport and storage facilities, brought hardship to settlers and their families. In Northern Victoria today, things are very different.

Locusts are a native species, feeding and breeding preferentially in native vegetation. We have so little of this left now that the frequency and extent of locust migration is a fraction of these "plagues" of yesteryear. For the most part, locusts have ignored irrigated pastures, mature crops and dry feed. The losses that have occurred, contrary to sensational media articles, were largely confined to unseasonal summer green. Spring sown crops are the rarity in this district and are always a gamble, and lucerne (and native pasture) re-growth, brought about by summer rains, is not something that dry-land farmers in our area budget on. From this perspective, the impacts were no more than the other seasonal variations farmers deal with everyyear.

The idea that something as abundant as a species of "plague" locust could become extinct seems impossible; yet this is exactly what has happened to the "plague" locust that used to occur in the USA, and it could also happen here. Already, what was once a one in five year event has been reduced to a one in thirty. The impact of such extinction would be more far-reaching than we realise. Locusts are a natural grazer of our grasslands and a welcome food source to other wildlife. Flocks of over a thousand Ibis, have been observed feasting on un-sprayed bands of locusts. Other native wildlife such as Falcons, Bearded Dragons and Shingle-back Lizards, to name just a few, have all been seen enjoying the feast. The rare Fat-tailed Dunnart has increased its activity since the arrival of the locusts, and even a Bustard (once abundant in Northern Victoria, now virtually extinct), was sighted last summer, in the same season and district that the Locusts swarms occurred. Co-incidence? With wildlife numbers low due to the recent drought: What role might the locust migrations have played in population recovery? And what impact are we having by our interference?

The landscape is being doused in pesticides, and even within our National Parks and Conservation Reserves, locusts, a natural part of the ecosystems, are being attacked with aircraft-delivered pesticides. Despite popular claims, the biological insecticide containing Metarhizium is NOT locust specific. Information produced by the APLC acknowledges that it can even effect totally unrelated insects such as honey bees.

Eris O'Brien,
Mitiamo