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their area in swarms bigger than she’d ever seen before. The insects devoured
all their grazing.(Photo: Mandy Roets)
The fight against swarms of locusts across the Eastern Cape continues as the
insects move from the Sarah Baartman region to Amathole.
The locust swarms that have damaged and devoured thousands of hectares of
grazing in the Karoo and parts of the Sarah Baartman area have now moved
into the Amathole district.
Several villages and towns have been hit by the locust infestation, including
Somerset East, Pearston, Paterson, Adelaide, Bedford, Fort Beaufort, Riebeeck
East, Makhanda, Alice, Hogsback and Keiskammahoek.
According to entomologist Dr Roger Price, the locust plague in parts of the
Northern and Western Cape and Karoo is by far the biggest outbreak in 25
years.
Stutterheim farmer Dean Palmer said the swarms descended on his farm on
Friday afternoon.
“On Saturday morning the weather did not permit them to move as they were
lined in a big swarm waiting for the sun to come out. Once the sun came out,
they moved to the next farm,” he said.
Palmer said spraying has been put on hold due to the impact it would have on
the environment.
A government message to farmers said officials from the Department of Rural
Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) and the Department of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) had visited the sites affected by locusts and
warned that spraying of insecticides was not allowed within 100 metres of any
wetlands or rivers.
“All statutory laws will apply and any person intending to use any toxins on the
swarm independent of DAFF or DRDAR officials can face charges under all
relevant legislation. I thus strongly advise to coordinate any action with the
municipal disaster management section prior to embarking on unilateral action,”
read the message.
Mandy Roets, a citrus and livestock farmer in Sundays River Valley, said locusts
had invaded their area in swarms bigger than she’d ever seen before. She said
the insects devoured all their grazing.
“The grazing camps for sheep and all the soft leaf plants were stripped.
Fortunately, we grow our own lucerne and so we supplement the feeder for
animals, and they still have enough food out in the field,” she said.
According to Roets, the last time there was an infestation of this size was in
1935, when swarms in the Grahamstown area moved down towards Gqeberha
and then to the southern part of the valley, stripping the leaves from
thousands of citrus trees.
“At first we were all panicking that if the locusts came to the valley and
stripped the leaves off the trees, the fruit would fall off and that would be
disastrous. That would have been the end of the entire economy of the valley
because it runs on the citrus industry,” she said.
She said they were unable to use insecticides because of the fruit on the trees.
“We had no way of protecting ourselves. When the first lot started coming in,
we burnt tyres around the orchards because locusts don’t like smoke and that
kept them away. We can’t do that indefinitely… if all the farms have tyres
burning, that could become a fire hazard.”
Roets said it was fortunate that grass had grown between the fruit trees, and
that it hadn’t been sprayed with weed killer.
- 45 -
all their grazing.(Photo: Mandy Roets)
The fight against swarms of locusts across the Eastern Cape continues as the
insects move from the Sarah Baartman region to Amathole.
The locust swarms that have damaged and devoured thousands of hectares of
grazing in the Karoo and parts of the Sarah Baartman area have now moved
into the Amathole district.
Several villages and towns have been hit by the locust infestation, including
Somerset East, Pearston, Paterson, Adelaide, Bedford, Fort Beaufort, Riebeeck
East, Makhanda, Alice, Hogsback and Keiskammahoek.
According to entomologist Dr Roger Price, the locust plague in parts of the
Northern and Western Cape and Karoo is by far the biggest outbreak in 25
years.
Stutterheim farmer Dean Palmer said the swarms descended on his farm on
Friday afternoon.
“On Saturday morning the weather did not permit them to move as they were
lined in a big swarm waiting for the sun to come out. Once the sun came out,
they moved to the next farm,” he said.
Palmer said spraying has been put on hold due to the impact it would have on
the environment.
A government message to farmers said officials from the Department of Rural
Development and Agrarian Reform (DRDAR) and the Department of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF) had visited the sites affected by locusts and
warned that spraying of insecticides was not allowed within 100 metres of any
wetlands or rivers.
“All statutory laws will apply and any person intending to use any toxins on the
swarm independent of DAFF or DRDAR officials can face charges under all
relevant legislation. I thus strongly advise to coordinate any action with the
municipal disaster management section prior to embarking on unilateral action,”
read the message.
Mandy Roets, a citrus and livestock farmer in Sundays River Valley, said locusts
had invaded their area in swarms bigger than she’d ever seen before. She said
the insects devoured all their grazing.
“The grazing camps for sheep and all the soft leaf plants were stripped.
Fortunately, we grow our own lucerne and so we supplement the feeder for
animals, and they still have enough food out in the field,” she said.
According to Roets, the last time there was an infestation of this size was in
1935, when swarms in the Grahamstown area moved down towards Gqeberha
and then to the southern part of the valley, stripping the leaves from
thousands of citrus trees.
“At first we were all panicking that if the locusts came to the valley and
stripped the leaves off the trees, the fruit would fall off and that would be
disastrous. That would have been the end of the entire economy of the valley
because it runs on the citrus industry,” she said.
She said they were unable to use insecticides because of the fruit on the trees.
“We had no way of protecting ourselves. When the first lot started coming in,
we burnt tyres around the orchards because locusts don’t like smoke and that
kept them away. We can’t do that indefinitely… if all the farms have tyres
burning, that could become a fire hazard.”
Roets said it was fortunate that grass had grown between the fruit trees, and
that it hadn’t been sprayed with weed killer.
- 45 -
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