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A band of Australian plague locusts, Chortoicetes terminifera

Extreme densities like this area northern land owner’s nightmare and also the Department of Agriculture officers. Locusts and grasshoppers when in plague numbers decimate vegetation where they hatch and migrate.

The Noxious Insect Act of 1934 requires land owners to control them, but large plagues can only ever be brought under control where the South Australian Government assists financially and Department officers tender for insecticide supplies and aerial spraying and coordinate a control program. Locust plagues occurred in South Australia in 1934, 1947, 1955, 1976, 1979, 1984, 1998 and 2002.

(Source: Campbell Phillips through Arthur Tideman 2006)