SYDNEY, Dec 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) – Prolonged flooding throughout Australia’s eastern states have created an ideal environment, to trigger plagues of destructive insects, as the nation approaches the peak of summer.
The state of New South Wales (NSW), following its wettest ever Nov, is bracing for an unwelcome rise in locust and mosquito numbers, due to the soggy conditions.
“We had a wet summer at the start of the year, followed by mild winter and wet spring and now the rains have returned and are likely to continue, due to the La Nina effect, so the potential is certainly there for plague numbers,” Australian Museum exhibition producer, David Bocks, said yesterday.
The Australian Plague Locust Commission, in its Dec update, reported that, there could be an increase to overall population levels over summer, with “swarm formation” likely in NSW’s Riverina district, near the neighbouring state of Victoria, which will lead to possible region-wide infestations.
Meanwhile, farmers in NSW’s western Murray district have already reported multiple swarms of locusts, for the first time in about a decade.
The insects, which are a species of grasshopper, can proliferate prodigiously with females laying up to 50 eggs at a time, a cycle they can repeat several times within a matter of weeks.
As Bocks notes, hundreds of thousands of ravenous locusts in search of food can fly about 500 km in a night, suddenly descending from the sky to devour a crop or pasture within a frantic day’s eating.
Another scourge of the Australian summer predicted to return in vast numbers are mosquitoes or “mozzies” as they are commonly called.
NSW Health Pathology entomologist, Dr. Cameron Webb, said yesterday that, he expected to see a variety of the blood-sucking insects rise in their favourable breeding conditions.
“There are many different types of mosquito in NSW,” Webb said. “The typical mosquitoes in our backyards are relatively small, but the ones breeding in the flooded areas of western NSW have a propensity to be quite large and their bites can pack a punch.”
Webb said, these large pests lay their eggs in floodplains, wetlands, and bushland areas, and their eggs can remain in place for many years until the ideal conditions occur.
Aside from being an all-too-familiar irritant to Australians, mosquitoes can transmit diseases, including the debilitating Ross River virus.
The good news, Webb said, is that, even if there are more mozzies than usual, it does not automatically lead to more pathogens being spread.
“Predicting outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease is incredibly difficult and requires an understanding of not just mosquitoes and their habitats, but also local wildlife that harbour these pathogens,” he said.
“It is important that the community take steps to avoid mosquito bites and keep an eye on warnings from local health authorities, that monitor mosquitoes for an early warning of pathogen activity.”– NNN-AGENCIES
