Locusts

Part 1: The Issue

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/locusts-munch-their-way-across-states-crops-20100919-15hya.html

Part 2: Effects

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/16/3013422.htm

http://www.daff.gov.au/animal-plant-health/locusts/aplc-activities/research/monitoring

Part 3:

The first article is from TheAge and gives a brief description of the rising issue of locusts this spring in the eastern states of Australia. The article highlights the potential damage that the locusts could have on more than $2.8 billion worth of crops, and also describes what measures will be taken to control and eliminate the hatching before it creates too much damage. Spraying is scheduled to begin next week, which made me curious to know what effects spraying for the locusts will have on the environment. The last two articles describe some of these repercussions. The article from ABC news focuses on the negative effects that spraying for locusts may have on the bee population of Australia (which is described as a $4 billion per year industry in Australia). The article describes that the pesticides used to fight off locusts will kill other insects as well, and may have a serious effect on the bee population if they are not taken into consideration when spraying (location, wind direction, etc). In addition, I also found an article from the Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry which details some of the pesticide monitoring that the government undertakes, as well as some interesting information about the benefit of hatching locusts, including, “locust population increases are therefore likely to enhance the breeding success of many local and invading vertebrate predator species and may represent an important component of their annual diet and population cycle. The timing of locust control is such that it is likely to coincide with vertebrate breeding events (or annual moults in the case of birds), which make the locusts an important food source at this time”. I thought that this whole issue, was quite intriguing. The fact that there are serious consequences at play for both using or not using pesticides to combat locusts this spring make this an interesting and controversial topic. While the ecological debate of to use or not use pesticides is not unique to Australia, I think it would be interesting to follow the topic in the news while we are in Melbourne and see how the issue plays out (or even if it remains a topic of interest for very long).