SWARMS of locusts have spread across the Murray Darling Basin laying seeds of failure in fields of hope.

Farmers are already fearful of sowing their crops in the face of the plague sweeping south.

However, spraying locusts on the wing is virtually useless.

Cold weather will eventually chill and kill these adults, eliminating the immediate risks to emerging crops and pastures.

But the real threat lies 8cm underground in the form of billions of locust eggs, wrapped in nature's own insulating foam.

It is these billions that threaten to consume the hope of farmers banking on their first decent season since the drought began 12 years ago.

These eggs will lay dormant until spring, when the real battle begins.

Come October, landholders and government agencies will have to be on high alert.

But preparations must begin now and landholders must play their part.

The Victorian Government is working with other states and the Australian Plague Locust Commission to map and monitor the location of locust egg beds.

But government agencies cannot do this work on their own.

Landholders must notify the commission or state Department of Primary Industries of egg bed locations and then monitor these sites in spring.

Unfortunately, tilling the egg beds does little to kill off these hardy pests.

The best farmers can do is to watch, wait and determine exactly how they will control the hoppers once the emerge and band together in spring.

We will all have to work together to control this pest that has swept down from the drenched pastures of northern NSW and Queensland's channel country.

If the forecasts prove accurate, the Victorian Government will have to step in and conduct its own spraying program, as well as supplying farmers with free pesticide.

The Government set the precedent in 2006 of supplying free chemicals, so it must do it again.

The cost is minimal compared to landholders losing yet another harvest and, ultimately, all hope next season.