ELF, read the whole article
For months, vast swarms of locusts have been buzzing through Africa, eating everything in sight. Now, they have reached European shores. Can the plague be stopped?
It was like deja vu, a flashback to that all-too-familiar invasion of feathered-friends from Hitchcock's thriller "The Birds."
| Locusts don't have feathers. It's more like a flashback to the no-longer-very-familiar biblical plagues... |
The difference: this time, the attackers had four wings and six legs, and there were 200 million of them. A steady rustling noise like silk paper filled the air last week when a cloud of locusts swarmed over Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, two holiday-paradise islands of the Canaries.
| "Herbert! My vacation is being ruined! Do something!" |
"Locusts turn holiday into horror trip," screamed the headline in Germany's mass-circulation tabloid Bild. Strong winds had literally blown the 6-centimeter (2.5-inch) long animals over from Africa. Shocked vacationers barricaded their holiday apartments -- hardly surprising, as they weren't exactly in the mood to watch this miracle of nature.
| "Helga, splash some lamb's blood on the doorjam, just to be safe!" |
Then again, few would have imagined that these ever-munching insects, Schistocerca gregaria in Latin, are normally very peaceful desert inhabitants. Tainted brown-beige, the locust in its solitary form resides in the deserts of Africa, living as a loner. But inside Dr. Jeckyl looms an ominous Mr. Hyde -- and through a seemingly magical transformation, the insects morph into the orange and yellow colored vandals straight out of the Book of Revelations that are now invading Portugal's coastline in masses in addition to the Canaries. |