I guess they don't come this far south, but the north of Mali is getting hit hard by the locusts. Officials say they only have a third of the resources they need to protect 650,000 threatened hectares (about 2500 square miles).

In Mali, villagers have formed groups of up to 50 people who gather whenever they see locusts descending on their crops, and try to chase them away with sticks.

When the insects descended on Nouakchott [Mauritania] last week, city residents tried in vain to burn rubbish, tyres and dead leaves to create smoke that would drive them away.

In many countries, villagers simply dig holes that they hope recently hatched flightless locusts known as hoppers will fall into. They then burn or drown them.

The closest I've come to a plague of locusts is reading The Poisonwood Bible. Unfortunately for Malians, this is real life, not the stuff of Oprah's Book Club.