AN infestation of black field crickets of "Biblical proportions" has forced the contractors building the Mortlake power station to suspend its night shift.
A spokesman for the power station's principal contractor, Bilfinger Berger, said the infestation began more than three weeks ago with the crickets attracted to the "lunar lights" used to illuminate the site at night.
"There were millions of them," the spokesman said.
The crickets filled pits and drains on the site and Bilfinger did spraying and baiting to eliminate them. Many areas were flushed with water to get rid of the dead insects.
The company hoped a reduction in nighttime temperatures would cut the cricket numbers and it hoped to resume the night shift, which involved about 40 workers, within a week.
It planned to do "a dummy run" with the lunar lights to see if they again attracted the crickets in big numbers.
The lunar lights are like "a silk bubble" and stood about four metres above the ground.
They cast very little shadow, providing good working conditions at night.
The lunar lights lit the power station site up "like a Christmas tree," the spokesman said.
"The crickets thought it was party time."
They came out of cracks in the ground in moist river flats to the west of the power station site.
Email a friend