A plague of locusts!

Travellers to Australia can face a myriad of dangers and annoyance – sharks, lethal jellyfish and extreme heat to name but a few – and now anyone heading for the east of the country should be aware that they could face a plague of locusts. The BBC reports that hundreds of thousands of hectares of land are being sprayed in an attempt to ward of the insects, but the region is still suffering from the worst plague in at least four years. One farmer reportedly said that expected so many locusts to arrive that they would “block out the sun”, and that the clothes on his washing line would be eaten by the swarm. Experts reportedly say the outbreak has been caused by heavy rains, which have led to a sharp increase in breeding – and that the insects, carried by strong winds, can travel as far as 500 miles in a night. Though the main cities in eastern Australia are so far unaffected, many towns in New South Wales, the country’s most populous state, have been inundated with locusts. The Daily Mail quotes one radio reporter, based in the town of Dubbo, about 200 miles north west of Sydney, as telling her listeners: “There are at least a hundred of them in the foyer. They jump on my desk as I type news stories. I feel something crawling on my back halfway through the 7.30 news. They are everywhere.” Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad