Canaries locust alert

A state of alert has been declared in the Canary Islands after the arrival of swarms of locusts from Saharan Africa. According to the BBC News website, some 5,000 of the insects were found on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura on Friday, with fears that the islands could face the worst locust plagues since the 1950s. Some 1,500 litres of insecticide have been imported, and all eyes are now on the weather as hot, dry winds continue to blow from northern Africa. Fuerteventura lies just 60 miles from the African coast. The Canaries’ regional agriculture minister Pedro Zaragoza is quoted as saying that the locusts presently represented an “insignificant” threat and that conditions would not be as bad as in parts of Africa, where swarms have destroyed millions of acres of crops. Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd