Insects disrupt UD Las Palmas' home match on Gran Canaria

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Thousands upon thousands of flies swarmed over the fans' yellow shirts during UD Las Palmas' home match on Sunday.
The city council identified the insects as thrips and attributed their proliferation to the heat and freshly pruned plants.
Las Palmas lost the match against Burgos CF 1-2 in injury time and slipped to tenth place.

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Small and annoying: thousands upon thousands of flies annoyed the UD Las Palmas fans during Sunday’s home match. The insects were drawn to the bright yellow of the Gran Canarias capital club’s shirts. This led to some bizarre scenes in the stands.

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It looked a bit like a new dance routine. Yet the scenes unfolding at the 32,400-capacity Estadio de Gran Canaria actually had nothing to do with sport. The garish shirts attracted thousands upon thousands of insects. And the spectators had to put up with the swarms of insects. Many of them waved their arms about frantically to shoo the insects away. But they came right back.

The Las Palmas city council has now identified the type of insect in question. It appears that the fans were plagued by thrips (Thysanoptera). These insects are also known as fringed-winged insects or bubble-footed insects. They are tiny, measuring just one to three millimetres in length, and naturally do not feed on football shirts, but rather on plant sap.

Gran Canaria’s yellow shirts attract insects

Characteristic features of these pests are the hairs on their wings and adhesive pads on their feet. This is where their nickname comes from. In Germany, the insects are also known as ‚thunderstorm bugs‘. If plants are infested by them, this can lead to stunted growth and, in extreme cases, the death of entire shoots.

The Parks Department of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria stated on Monday: «They feed on plant sap, particularly from the new shoots, which are currently very tender following the recent pruning. And the heat has led to an increase in the population.»

The animals pose no danger to humans and are simply seen as a nuisance – just as they were on Sunday at the stadium. There, the fans had a second reason to be annoyed: the match against Burgos CF ended 1-2. The point that had already seemed certain was snatched away in the fourth minute of stoppage time by a goal from David González Ballesteros, sending it back to northern Spain. UD thus slipped to 10th place, whilst Burgos climbed to fifth.

The next home match is scheduled for 4 October. The animals are expected to have disappeared by then. The Parks Department has announced that it will tackle the pests using high-pressure washers.