Farmers brace for locust onslaught

Photo from recent locust swarm in Afghanistan

The area in Western Queensland where worries lie

Biosecurity Queensland says farmers and graziers could be facing one of the worst seasons for plague locusts in several years, due to the recent rain.

Aerial surveys have shown numbers of the Australian plague locust have been building up in the state's Channel Country.

Biosecurity officer Graham Hardwick says virtually all of the state's agricultural areas are at some level of risk because locusts can travel up to 500 kilometres in a night.

"There were some fairly large numbers there before the rain and they have laid again," he said.

"Some of those should be hatching out in the next week or so and there are going to be some big issues with the Australian plague locust in that area.

"They are a worry because they multiple so quickly and they can move across a large area in a short space of time depending on the weather fronts."

Mr Hardwick says locusts can cause millions of dollars worth of damage to crops and pastures and landholders are being urged to report sightings.

"This is ... potentially one of the worst seasons - because we had that rain around Christmas time and the floods out in the Channel Country," he said.

"Mostly when they breed up in the Channel Country they go south into New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

"However, there is the risk that they can come into the cropping areas in the east and that is what we are concerned about at this stage."