“The brown locust occurs naturally in the semi-arid areas, which is basically the Karoo area in South Africa,” Petersen says.

She says that these outbreaks are seasonal because once they lay their eggs, in particularly in dry areas, the eggs will stay viable and that once the area warms up and receives some rain, those eggs will hatch. “Once those eggs hatch they form these hoppers and these hoppers form these full-grown locusts. That’s when we have a major challenge,” states Petersen.

She mentions that many of the areas that are affected by these locust outbreaks are areas that border the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape.

Petersen notes the importance of small scale farmers and commercial farmers to be extremely vigilant of these hoppers and to report the hoppers as soon as possible to ensure that the infestation is contained as best as possible. “So it’s reporting it, alerting the district locust officer, and spraying as soon as the locusts have been identified,” says Petersen.

She says that they cause complete devastation once they have infested lands and that they usually feed on grass. In the Karoo areas, where the Western Cape experiences its majority of brown locust outbreaks, extreme drought has been at the heart of the outbreaks. Petersen says that the Karoo areas are currently in their 8th year of drought, however, any growth and recovery of the area is destroyed in hours by brown locusts if they have not been contained and sprayed. “They're also very destructive to pastures where rain has occurred and some of the dams are filled and farmers were able to plant these pastures,” mentions Petersen.

“We take great pride in supporting our farmers within the Western Cape and what we’ve done is we have had a workshop with the local district officers that had been appointed by the national department, as well as the facilitators and the individuals responsible at the national office for managing the migratory pests like the locusts and the farmers in the areas. And we have explained exactly the life cycle, the kind of impact, the best time to intervene and that was very successful. Our farmers found it very informative,” says Petersen.

She concludes by saying that they have formed WhatsApp groups to keep farmers whose farms are prone to infestations on the group, which helps them communicate efficiently and go out to the farms when outbreaks occur.

She mentions that many of the areas that are affected by these locust outbreaks are areas that border the Northern Cape and the Eastern Cape.

Petersen notes the importance of small-scale farmers and commercial farmers to be extremely vigilant of these hoppers and report the hoppers as soon as possible to ensure that the infestation is contained as best possible. “So it’s reporting it, alerting the district locust officer and spraying as soon as locust have been identified,” says Petersen.

She says that they cause complete devastation once they have infested lands and that they usually feed on grasses. In the Karros areas, where the Western Cape experiences majority of their Brown locust outbreaks, extreme drought has been at the heart of the outbreaks. Petersen says that the Karoo areas is currently in their 8th year of drought however any growth and recovery of the area in destroyed in hours by brown locust if they have not been contained and sprayed. “Their also very destructive to pastures where rain has occurred and some of the dams are filled and farmers were able to plant these pastures,” mentions Petersen.

Petersen says, “we take great pride in supporting our farmers within the Western Cape and what we’ve done is we have had a work shop with the district local officers that had been appointed by the national department as well as the facilitators and the individuals responsible at national office for managing the migratory pests like the locusts and the farmers in the areas. And we have explained exactly the life cycle, the kind of impact, when the best time to intervene and that is was very successful. Our farmers found it very informative.”

She concludes by saying that they have formed WhatsApp groups to keep farmers whose farms are prone to infestations on the group which helps them communicate efficiently and go out to the farms when outbreaks occur.

OFM News/Lee Simmons