Sascha Wil­son

Huge swarms of lo­custs con­tin­ue to in­con­ve­nience res­i­dents and feast on veg­e­ta­tion in Princes Town and en­vi­rons.

With the bugs fly­ing every­where up to yes­ter­day, res­i­dents were on­ly ven­tur­ing out of their homes when nec­es­sary and were forced to keep their doors and win­dows closed.

The lo­custs were seen on build­ings, trees, plants, peo­ple’s cloth­ing, wind­screens, cars and build­ings from New Grant to Princes Town when Guardian me­dia vis­it­ed the com­mu­ni­ties yes­ter­day.

New Grant res­i­dent Jack Bhag­wan­deen was sur­round­ed by thou­sands of in­sects, many of which land­ed on his clothes and face, as he sprayed his gar­den along the Na­pari­ma Ma­yaro Road. He said the lo­custs in­vad­ed their com­mu­ni­ty about two days ago, but not­ed they are al­so in sev­er­al com­mu­ni­ties with­in a file mile ra­dius.

“They just cir­cling and feed­ing, cir­cling and feed­ing,” he said.

Bhag­wan­deen, who grows a va­ri­ety of crops in his gar­den, said even his mar­i­jua­na tree was de­voured.

“Well, I have spinach, hot pep­pers, sweet pep­pers, pi­men­to pep­pers, ah have a mar­i­jua­na tree they eat it out clean...You see that big man­go tree you see­ing there, if you fo­cus on it, all that is lo­cust on the leaf, what look­ing like brown spots, is lo­custs.”

While they are eat­ing his crops, Bhag­wan­deen said there is noth­ing much they could do about them.

“Lo­custs have to pass, is a sign of the times, the Bible say that,” he added.

Bhag­wan­deen said res­i­dents have to keep their homes locked as a re­sult of the in­fes­ta­tion.

“You just have to keep your doors closed, ladies stay­ing in­side be­cause once one touch them, they bawl­ing.”

How­ev­er, Bhag­wan­deen said every year for the past five years, the un­want­ed fly­ing bugs have been in­vad­ing their com­mu­ni­ty.

“What the Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture will do, since Ca­roni close down and they stop spray­ing the area? Re­mem­ber, all this is cane area, when they used to spray this area we nev­er used to get this kind of thing.”

He sug­gest­ed that the min­istry do aer­i­al spray­ing dur­ing the night.