Locust invasion subsides on Canary Islands

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain (dpa)

• A locust plague from West Africa which has descended on Spain's Canary Islands appeared to subside on Tuesday, local officials said.

The number of locusts went down on Fuerteventura Island while a western wind was pushing locust swarms towards the sea on Lanzarote Island. The number of locusts was estimated at 200 million on Monday.

The authorities have declared the locusts a plague on both islands. Officials said the insects had done hardly any damage to agriculture, because much of the local produce was grown in hothouses and because the locusts were exhausted after their sea crossing of more than 100 kilometres from the African coast.

Experts said the locusts had reached a size of 8 centimetres, which meant they were close to death.

Kilometres-long carpets of locusts covered dunes in the nature park of Corralejo on Fuerteventura on Monday. Locusts entered hotels and holiday apartments in the touristic region.

Locusts have devoured millions of acres of cropland and millions of tons of grain in West Africa, which is suffering its worst locust invasion in more than a decade, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation.

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