Canarys locust plague finally over

2 December 2004

MADRID- A mass collection of dead locusts has begun in Spain’s Canary Islands after millions of the flying pests invaded the area in recent days, local authorities said.

“The situation is under control, the arrivals have stopped thanks to a change in the direction of the wind,” a spokesman for the agriculture department of the Canary regional government said.

Collecting up the dead locusts “began with industrial vacuum cleaners”, he said and volunteers are clearing them up manually in the sea.

Authorities wanted to avoid use of insecticides and wait until the locusts died on their own, he added.

The insects which arrived in recent days died because they were unable to reproduce or feed.

Hot weather and easterly winds in the region have exacerbated the problem posed by the insects, which have been threatening crops in several countries in the Sahara and the Maghreb region of north Africa.

For the Canary Islands, the invasion was the biggest since 1956.

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news