Recent warm weather in the far west has stepped up the number of locust hatchings in the area.
Cool weather had kept hatchings down to around two or three, but the numbers now reported are around 20.
The Deputy Locust Commissioner, Simon Oliver, says this is nowhere near the number in other areas of New South Wales, but could still pose a problem.
He says things will drop off a bit again with the cooler, wet weather, but are expected to pick up again as soon as the warm weather returns.
“We are getting well into spring now, we are still quite behind on what we initially thought were going to be the initial hatching dates.”
“That is primarily linked to all this cool weather that keeps going through the state, that little burst of warmth has caused increase in activity and as soon as this rain change goes through we think there will be another burst of activity again as more eggs emerge,” he said.
“It is a bit of a drawn out process we do not know exactly when things are going to hatch so people still need to be vigilant and go out and have a bit of a look and we applaud the efforts of people to date, and unfortunately we have still got a long way to go.”
