Overview
- Dense swarms of desert locusts have been reported across Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura, with widely shared videos showing thick clouds of insects.
- Local governments have mobilized environmental services for a 48-hour surveillance window and urged residents and tourists to remain calm, noting no direct risk to people.
- Environment chief Francisco Fabelo said outcomes in the next two days are pivotal, with die-off of exhausted adults posing little threat but evidence of copulation indicating potential reproduction and higher crop risk.
- Authorities and reports indicate the insects were likely carried from Western Sahara on easterly winds following warm, wet weather, aligning with previous island episodes.
- The FAO labels desert locusts the most destructive migratory pest and cites past Canary outbreaks, including 1958, that damaged crops, though no widespread agricultural losses are confirmed in the current event.