A locust, first spotted this week at Devon Wildlife Trust, has escaped and turned up in a garden in nearby Loddiswell and eaten the fruit and leaves from an entire apple tree.
Experts believe the recent strong westerly winds have brought the locust in from southern Europe or North Africa.
Retired electrician Fred Gimble (83) had stopped picking apples in his garden to go indoors to the toilet.
The Apple tree at 11.00
‘I was only gone a few minutes, five or six at the most, just for another pee,’ he said. ‘But when I come out I couldn’t believe it, the tree was stripped bare … everything. Leaves, fruit, the whole blinking lot, gone.’
The Apple tree at 11.06
Fred spotted the culprit lying on its back in the crook of a branch. ‘He was on his own and looked a bit tired,’ he told us. ‘It’s incredible though isn’t it? A little thing like that can eat all of this?’ He said he felt some admiration for the insect until he stopped for his lunch. ‘Little bugger had snaffled my Marmite sandwiches, a dark KitKat and a banana. He must have swallowed the wrapper too.’
The locust eventually flew off towards Portsmouth.
After extensive research in to the lone locust phenomenon this interesting piece of information has come from believe it or not the Florida Fire &Rescue team. They have long been studying the reason for strange unexplained forest & scrub land fires. They have come up with this strange solution. Apparently large swarms of locusts have been settling on council refuse dumps in Saudi Arabia and have been drinking the run off liquid from illicit stills built by Scottish oil workers. Certain male members of the swarm become over inebriated and have been shouting strange words like och-aye-the -noo & see you Jummay ! The rest of the swarm then in unison beat their wings and blow the offending males away from the comfort of the swarm. Then blown by the Sahara sand storms & freak atmospheric conditions they travel to the other side of the world. Obviously this explains the lone locust in Devon.
What happens next is another mystery of nature but it is believed that starving hungry from its long flight and the after effects of the hangover it gorges on the Apple tree following up with a decent pudding of Marmite & fruit. Then reinforced he flew away towards the New Forest for a rest. Now comes the reason for Florida Fire and rescue teams theory. Full of cider apples which turn to alcohol and that well known combustible addition of Marmite comes the strange phenomena of instant combustion. Hence the previously unexplained scubland fire in the New Forest this week. Of course it is well known that Florida is full of Apple orchards & they reckon that lone insects over full with fermented alcohol fly to the forests for a quick lie down and internally combust causing forest fires. This seems a feasible explanation but it has to be remembered that some strange things are grown in the area and when burnt can produce all sorts of strange smoke which may affect fire fighters!