Locust swarms may reach Israeli coast

The Jerusalem Post. ^ | November 18th, 2004 | By ASSOCIATED PRESS

[M. Espinola]

Most of the millions of red locusts that swarmed through Cairo had flown east by Thursday but the government announced that President Hosni Mubarak was still closely following the efforts to control the swarm that had invaded northern Egypt a day before. Locusts can eat up to two times their body weight a day, leaving crops like these bare

[M. Espinola]

The locusts, some at least seven centimeters (2.75 inches) long, caused Cairenes to swat and stare as they filled the skies in some neighborhoods of the city Wednesday.

"Certainly in this region (the Middle East) there is no need for panic," said Keith Cressman, locust forecasting officer for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. "There is certainly a tendency when a swarm of locusts appear in such a large urban area like Cairo that an awful lot of people see it and it causes a lot of panic."

He said the locust plague was the worst in 15 years.

By Thursday, the swarm had moved east along the Sinai Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the Israeli border.

Agriculture Minister Ahmed el-Leithy said in a news conference that Mubarak was following the locust issue and government control measures.

Egyptian authorities began emergency pesticide spraying Wednesday to protect the Nile Delta's important agriculture industry but said the locusts appeared to pose no serious threat to crops.

Locusts, which normally live between two to six months, eat their weight - about 2 grams, or 0.07 ounces - in crops every day. They can travel 200 kilometers (120 miles) a day.

Will the invasion of red locust reach the Tel Aviv coastline?

[Founding Father]

Would this be Bush's or Moses' fault?

[Texas Mom]

Would this be Bush's or Moses' fault?

Let my people go.

[Fiddlstix]

Ping

[Dog Gone]

Locusts can eat up to two times their body weight a day, leaving crops like these bare

That crop doesn't look too tasty to me.

[Nateman]

Sounds like a good way to use a nuke!

[GSlob]

"Sounds like a good way to use a nuke!"
Insects are notoriously resistant to large doses of radiation. And to use really big nukes to fry them in a fireball might be counter-indicated.

[M. Espinola]

Let my locust go ....some other place :)

[M. Espinola]

Well it's neither Bush nor Moses' fault, I think they were looking for Yasser and are just too late. The green cousin

[Bandaneira]

Tel Aviv's beaches are great. On my visit to Israel in 1997 I swam in the sea of Tel Aviv a few times. Some people knock the beaches in that part of Israel but I think they are pretty good.

Aussie beaches are still some of the best in the world...

[GSlob]

To have a fireball 10 miles in diameter would require some >200MT charge. The depopulated radius would be some 300+ miles, and that only in the absence of any wind.