Beleaguered Island

And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth; and unto them was given power. . . . Revelation 9:3.

Seven UNRRA specialists flew from Italy to Sardinia, island of clannish shepherds and tiny donkeys. From the sky the experts saw what looked like blobs of molasses oozing over green baize. Their task was to stop the oozing--the relentless march of billions of locusts.

Sardinia's invader (Dociostaurus maroccanus) somewhat resembles the red-legged grasshopper of the U.S. Peasants have fought them every year in the memory of man, but never on such a scale. Since the last week in April, every able-bodied Sardinian has been mobilized to fight the scourge, backed by a 500 million lira ($2,222,222) Government subsidy. They struck at the advancing insect columns with weapons ranging from rakes and shovels to poisoned bran and flamethrowers. But the locusts came on. Ahead of them young wheat waved green; behind them the earth lay yellow-brown under the spring sun. At night the invaders ceased their rustling and grating, huddled in great clumps on whitewashed walls; in some villages they blanketed every house and path with a layer three to four inches thick.

Everything in Sardinia tasted of locust. A sickly, bitterish flavor permeated milk, cheese and beef from cattle that had crunched the pests with their fodder. (Last year several peasants, after losing their crops, then tasting locust for weeks, went mad.)

By last week the whole island was affected. Even trains couldn't run. Said Director Antonio Melis of Florence's Entomological Center: "It's a biological phenomenon unknown in history. . . ." Unless the blight were checked within a fortnight, the locusts would develop wings, blitz the estimated 200,000-ton grain crop, sorely needed for relief. And, warned Professor Melis, should the locusts survive into July, when they lay eggs, next year's generation might "completely extinguish the island's plant life. . . ."

At week's end, with a national disaster threatening (and national elections approaching) King Umberto and Premier de Gasperi got the same idea. Each hopped into a plane, raced to Cagliari. Umberto won handily. He watched as locust-fighters deployed their last weapon: 62 drums of gammexane, a sort of new DDT, flown in from England for its first big-scale test. If this failed, nothing would stop the scourge save a miracle such as that related in Exodus 10:19: "And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and cast them into the Red sea. . . "

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