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The destructive brown locusts that have been ravaging farms since last year have now been spotted in the Amathole District of the Eastern Cape.
The locust swarms have already required the intervention of an aerial sprayer in the towns of Alice, Hogsback and Kieskammahoek.
A spokesperson for the Department of Rural Development and Agrarian Reform MEC, Masiza Mazizi says they want to move with speed to address this problem that has left a trail of destruction over large parts of the province.
He says this past week, aerial spraying was done in Somerset East, Pearston, Paterson, Adelaide, Bedford, Fort Beaufort, Riebeeck East and Makhanda and covered more than 4900 hectares.
He says there is a joint operation centre to tackle these outbreaks and the Department is mandated by The Agricultural Pest Act of 1983 to train and deploy sprayers, provide chemicals, equipment, and protective clothing to participating sprayers, and provide the infrastructure and expertise needed to efficiently manage control operations and implement monitoring systems.
Mazizi says the Department has received reports of private exterminators who, in some instances, are said to be using chemicals that do not only kill the insects but also contaminate even the soil while other reports reveal acts of over-spraying.
He says to help bring the situation under control the Department is urgently training its extension officers and private land users on detecting the brown locusts and controlling them through the use of chemicals on the ground.
Farmers are also urged to obtain GPS coordinates of where they have spotted the pests resting and to notify aerial controllers of the pin.
When spraying occurs in grazing lands, animals must be removed from the camps to adhere to the withholding period of insecticides.
Another Joint Operation Centre meeting is set to take place on Wednesday, May 11 2022.
