The Prickly Pear isn’t prickly enough.

How the colour of your lipstick can devastate the cacti population.

The 3 middle pots are infested but not the really spikey ones on each end. RGB.

You’ve probably heard of cochineal, probably know it’s a bright red colouring, used in foods and in lipstick. You may even know that it comes from the prickly pear cactus. But did you know that it is an invasive little insect? They come in their thousands and suck the life out of this species of cactus. There are usually several families under one Queen, all in one colony.

When they are crushed they produce red dye but on the plant they are covered with a white sticky fluff that makes them look like mould.

They live on the prickly pear cactus or, with its Sunday name, opuntia ficus indica. In my photo there are two different types and it’s the smoother ones that are infected. There are lots of types of these cacti, all with different names but they’re a bit like dogs so you get “Heinz 57 varieties”. It’s called hybridyzing. And then they have different regional names, like chumberas in the south of Spain, so I have absolutely no idea what type ours are. Let’s just call them smooth cactus and spiny cactus and it’s the spiny ones that seem to be resistant.

We got these as cuttings from the wild cacti that grow (or used to grow) all around where we live in Spain. They are native to Mexico and the southern states of the US. Ours got infected a year or more after the wild ones as ours are up on the roof terrace. For centuries these little beasties were treasured for their crimson dye that was used in textiles but now they’ve been replaced with synthetic colourings. Without the control of cropping, the cochineal insect has begun to run rampant in Europe and North Africa.

In Italy and Tunisia the cacti were cultivated as a harvestable product, not just for cochineal but for their prickly fruit and as a biofuel. For obvious reasons, it was the lesser prickly varieties that were nurtured and now these are the varieties most vulnerable to attack.

But there is another very real danger. As the parasitical insects lay waste to their own feeding grounds, they have to adapt to alternative hosts.

They have chosen olive trees, the ancient native sustainance of Southern Europe and North Africa.

Many authorities decided to hack down all living cacti in their area to deprive the insects of sustainance in the hope of killing them off. I fear that, rather than a solution, this will simply transfer the problem to a much more valuable cash crop.

The desparate attempt to eradicate the little beasties. 2023 Palamos.

Dying slowly, a huge cactus plant, Palamos 2024.

For now we just have to look at these poor cacti in their death throws; in other places it will impact heavily on the local economy.

The prickly-pear cactus is going to have to get pricklier.