Britain is said to be facing a moth infestation of “biblical” proportions that threatens to devastate crop harvests.
The diamondback moths, which are arriving from continental Europe in their tens of thousands, are described by experts as “super pests” because they are resistant to numerous insecticides.
They feed on cabbages and cauliflower and could cause severe damage, even leading to crops being lost.
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Thousands more are expected to make their way to the UK and scientists are said to be frantically trying to find ways to prevent them from wreaking havoc.
The Sun today published the news on its front page, warning that it was “time to mothball the EU” and urging the public to vote Leave in order to "protect our country … and our cabbages".
However, Twitter account @migrantmothUK, which on Saturday reported a two-mile cloud of diamondback moths in Herefordshire, said the insects were unlikely to have originated from an EU country. They are more likely, they suggest, to be Russian.
Steve Nash, who runs the account, told the Sun that the numbers could escalate in the coming weeks. “Once the progeny of this influx arrives in mid-July, numbers could be biblical,” he said.
Scientist Steve Foster, from agricultural research institution Rothamsted Research, said the swarms are like plagues of locusts that can appear “like a brown cloud", the BBC reports.
Foster advises growers to seek guidance before spraying their crops as the resistant bugs might well survive at the expense of insects such as wasps and ladybirds, which are beneficial to farmers.
