South Australia says major locust outbreak is unlikely, but farmers stay alert
Authorities in South Australia say a major locust outbreak is unlikely this season, but monitoring continues across key farming regions after April swarms.
South Australia is treating a major locust outbreak later this year as unlikely, but not impossible. ABC News reported that the state’s Department of Primary Industries and Regions completed surveys of a potential outbreak in the Riverland after swarms were reported in late April. Officials say the real test will come in spring, when eggs laid after migration events either fail or develop into larger populations.
Weather is a central part of the current assessment. The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting a possible El Niño event, which would likely bring hotter and drier winter conditions. Australian Plague Locust Commission commissioner Bertie Hennecke said soil moisture is critical because locust eggs need it to survive. If the soil dries out, the odds of the current migration event turning into a true outbreak fall sharply. He added that these movement events are not unusual after heavy rain and bursts of vegetation growth.
The current swarms reached the Riverland from western New South Wales at the end of April. The issue remains politically and economically sensitive because South Australia’s last major outbreak, in 2010, cost the state government more than A$12 million. That outbreak damaged crops heavily and became memorable well beyond the farm sector, with roads and vehicles affected by the scale of the insect movement.
PIRSA has already surveyed Riverland locust activity for the first time since 2010. Commissioner Michael McManus said the numbers seen so far are not strongly suggestive of a major risk, but he also stressed that authorities will be ready if swarms return in spring. The department is monitoring other regional areas as well, especially the Mid North and southern Flinders, where good breeding conditions and plenty of green feed could support egg laying and later population growth.
Farmers are cautious rather than panicked. Riverland grower Andrew Biele remembers the damage from 2010, but said current swarms do not look comparable to that earlier event. He also said landholders learned from the previous outbreak and believes PIRSA has responded earlier this time. Even so, he underlined the economic reality: any locust threat creates another expense for producers whose margins are already thin. That is why, despite the official view that a major outbreak is unlikely, growers are still watching conditions very closely.