Western Queensland producers are welcoming a $4.5 million funding injection to control locusts and nymphs that have been destroying outback crops and pasture.

Swarms of the native pests have been reported across the outback since April, including at Alpha, Barcaldine, Aramac and Muttaburra.

Since then, large swarms of migratory locusts have moved north west to areas around Hughenden, Richmond and Julia Creek. Loading...

Minister for Primary Industries Tony Perrett said the locust outbreak was at the tipping point of becoming a plague.

"We're just concerned that the problem is not dissipating, it's actually becoming worse in some areas,"

he said.

The Department of Primary Industries will use the state government funding to conduct large-scale aerial and ground spraying of nymphs, w

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