Locusts Descend on Outback Towns


Mar 16, 8:48 AM (ET)

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - A plague of locusts has engulfed towns in Australia's Outback, devastating crops just as farmers had begun recovering from a two-year drought.

The bugs started breeding in northeastern Australia after it was swamped by heavy rainfall late last month, and quickly migrated south to feed on newly planted crops of oats and alfalfa, agriculture officials said Tuesday.

"A thick haze of them came through over the weekend and chomped their way through our oats crop overnight," said Bev Dennis from her farm in Tomingley, 550 kilometers (340 miles) west of Sydney.

The oats were intended for lambs, which have struggled for two years with little green grass to eat as vast tracts of Australia experienced their lowest levels of rainfall in a century.

"We were just staggering out of the drought - we are incredibly frustrated," Dennis said. "I just kept on thinking it's got to get better, but now we've got this."

Agriculture officials have started spraying regions in southwest Queensland and northern New South Wales states with insecticide in an effort to stop the further spread of the plague, but they warn it could get much worse.

"Given the fact that adult locusts can migrate long distances - sometimes more than 500 kilometers (310 miles) in a night - the potential exists over the next few weeks for plague locusts to move into new areas," Agriculture Minister Warren Truss said.

Dennis said the locusts had cost them "tens of thousands of dollars" in lost income.

"If only we could chocolate coat them and send them off somewhere to sell," she said.