Xylella fastidiosa has finally landed on the Spanish mainland, with the detection a few weeks ago of the first case in Valencia. Apparently some 12 almond trees were tested as positive, and yesterday, they reported another 'focus' about 1 km from the original site.

Current wisdom dictates that all potentially affected trees and bushes within 100m on the focus are destroyed - burnt or chipped, and 150m radius is sprayed with insecticide to stop the spread of the hopper that seems to pass on the bacterium.

As the list of plants affected is quite long - olives - all citrics and stone fruit, and grapes amongst a list of 300+ possibles - then an outbreak could be damn serious for the local economy.