Spanish islands beset by biblical locust plague…
It was a pestilence of biblical proportions.
Officials in Spain’s Canary Islands are sounding alarm bells after an epic swarm of locusts descended upon the favored trip vacation spot, as seen in dramatic footage circulating on social media.
Over the past few days, the scenic islands of Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura have been beset by the biblical plague of short-horned grasshoppers, the Express reported. Originally hailing from the Sahara Desert in Africa, the infamous crop pests had been reportedly pushed to the sunny Spanish isles by humid yet delicate temperatures.
The locust swarms darkened the skies over the Canary Islands. X/RTVECanarias
Lanzarote was significantly laborious hit with the bugs swarming the vacationer hotspots of Arrecife, Costa Teguise, Famara, Uga and Tahíche.
Footage exhibits the bugs darkening the skies like one thing out of one of the “Mummy” films.
While the locusts don’t pose a menace to people, they might probably devastate the island’s agricultural industry, including vineyards, if the swarm snowballs into a full-blown infestation as it did years in the past in the islands.
Borne aloft by Easterly winds and accompanied by airborne Sahara Desert mud, desert locusts are the “world’s most destructive migratory pest,” according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Es el impresionante enjambre de langostas que ha llegado a la isla de Lanzarote desde el Sáhara. En este video, la marea de langostas sorprendía a los conejeros en Famara, camino a San Juan. pic.twitter.com/tq4sRRSXyQ— RTVECanarias (@RTVECanarias) February 25, 2026
A 250-acre swarm of the critters — which may comprise 80 million people — is succesful of consuming what 35,000 people eat in a day, that means their feast may shortly grow to be people’s famine.
In accordance, the federal government of Lanzarote has put its environmental sector on high alert for the next 48 hours.
However, they continue to be assured that the swam is not going to escalate into a full-on plague, the Daily Mail reported.
A locust on a leaf. Theo Hernando, secretary normal of the Association of Farmers and Ranchers of the Canary Islands (Asaga), said wind-borne locust plagues from Africa are “common” and nothing to fear about in “isolated cases.” Stock.Adobe.com
“The next two days are going to be key,” declared Francisco Fabelo, who oversees the Environment of the Cabildo. “If they are adult specimens that have arrived exhausted, they will die and nothing will happen.”
He added, “If we see copulations, that would mean that they are reproducing. We would have to see it between this afternoon and tomorrow.”
Meanwhile, Theo Hernando, secretary normal of the Association of Farmers and Ranchers of the Canary Islands (Asaga) said wind-borne locust plagues from Africa are “common” and nothing to fear about in “isolated cases.”
‘They arrive very weakened, they don’t seem to be in a place to settle or reproduce,” he assured. “Nature itself takes its course and many times they end up being preyed upon by birds.”
That being said, the Canary Islands are no strangers to devastating locust plagues. In a severe incident in October 1958, desert locusts from Africa pillaged the Canary Islands, particularly the South of Tenerife, wreaking havoc on tomato and potato plantations.
El Duque seaside in Tenerife, one of the islands impacted by the grasshopper swarms. Alex Tihonov – Stock.Adobe.com
In response, the Ministry of Agriculture dispatched planes to fumigate from the air, while residents and farmers tried to fight the grasshoppers from the ground utilizing bonfires, noise and poisoned baits.
This reportedly adopted a comparable scourge that ravaged 10,000 hectares of crops in the area just 4 years earlier.
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