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Wednesday, July 30, 2025

Locusts feast on fruit trees in Chatham

by

Radhica De Silva
2240 days ago
20190611

Thick swarms of lo­custs are con­tin­u­ing to eat through veg­e­ta­tion in Chatham, dis­tress­ing farm­ers and home­own­ers.

The in­sects which hatched in the Ce­dros forests have moved in­to the res­i­den­tial com­mu­ni­ties near Ash­ford Trace, Belle View and Chatham Junc­tion.

Or­na­men­tal plants, crops and fruit trees have not been spared.

Res­i­dent said Per­sad Be­har­ry said he has start­ed us­ing cam­phor to keep the in­sects at bay.

“It makes no sense us­ing in­sec­ti­cide. It is just too much to kill. The Lo­cust Unit does not come when we call. They say the trac­tor was down the last time we called,” Be­har­ry said.

He said the in­sects chomped down his pep­per trees as well as his chataigne tree.

“They eat­ing down my Chi­nese co­conut trees as well,” he said.

Be­har­ry said the trac­tor was use­less in killing the swarms. He said a crop duster air­craft should be utilised to do aer­i­al spray­ing. Told that aer­i­al spray­ing could al­so kill valu­able in­sects such as bees, Be­har­ry said there must be some way to erad­i­cate the pests be­fore they cleared down all the agri­cul­tur­al es­tates in the Ce­dros dis­trict.

Nishe Seer­aj, of Ash­ford Trace, said it was dis­tress­ing to see their crops be­ing eat­en away.

“They on my zabo­ca tree right now. I too have called the Lo­cust Unit and they sprayed in­side by me but it is too much. As soon as you spray oth­ers come back,” she added.

A source from the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture said the lo­custs should have been erad­i­cat­ed be­fore they start­ed to fly and teams would be hard pressed to kill the in­sects now.

“We can kill what we have ac­cess to but they are fly­ing from place to place. This will go on un­til No­vem­ber. That is when they come down low, mate and lay eggs be­fore they die. They are at the tree lev­els now and they are eat­ing out the tops of trees, es­pe­cial­ly tall fruit trees, chataigne and man­go trees. There is lit­tle we can do now,” the of­fi­cial said.

LocustsChatham


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