Israel vs. The Locusts - Pests to Plague Jews for Passover?
The Agriculture Ministry redoubled its efforts to battle
new swarms of locusts that descended upon the Land of Israel this week, with
the grim prospect that more -- maybe millions more -- are on the way.
The latest swarm, which like the others crossed the
border into the country from Egypt, numbered in the tens of thousands.
Thursday morning at dawn the Agriculture Ministry sprayed
locust swarms from the air and on the ground over the Eshelim region in the
Ramat Negev Regional Council. Ground pest control also took place briefly in
Hatzerim.
No other swarms were spotted at the border infiltrating
Israel on Thursday at midday, officials said, but a stray was caught on camera
in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Pisgat Ze'ev by Arutz Sheva reporter Ernie
Singer.
However, the ministry reported a small swarm sighted near
the Ein Gedi oasis reserve. “The situation is being constantly monitored.
Pesticide deployment has been postponed until fog in the area clears,” a
spokesperson said.
The ministry also deployed a pesticide crop dusting run
at dawn Wednesday in southern Israel in the Har Keren, Ashalim and Ruchama
regions.
Officials have become increasingly concerned with the
advent of warmer weather and southerly winds that millions more of the insects
could be on the way from the Sinai Peninsula, where they have already stripped
the fields. Indeed, additional swarms of millions of locusts were spotted in
the Sinai, east of El Arish earlier this week, according to reports published in
Egyptian media.
Ramat Negev Regional Council leaders sent a letter,
written in Arabic, to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi on Sunday urging him to
grant permission for Israeli crop dusters to spray the fields of Sinai in order
to help both nations control the infestation. The letter was hand-delivered to
the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv ahead of being sent to the Office of the
President in Cairo. No response has been received.
Meanwhile, Israel is taking whatever measures possible to
control the insects once they land in the Jewish State. The chemicals used to
neutralize the infestation are specific to locusts only and have no effect on
other creatures, ministry officials said, and leave no residue.
But it is impossible to spray while they are in the air,
ministry officials explained, and there are no preventive measures that can be
taken to stop them. Still, there has
been relatively little damage to crops from the infestation thus far.
Aerial and ground spraying has been fairly effective in
containing the swarms, and eliminating them when they appear, officials
stressed, adding that the bugs are not harmful to humans, but rather to the
agricultural fields where they like to feed.
In fact, there are some humans who enjoy dining on the
locusts themselves, as Yemenite Jews have explained, noting that in the Torah
there are four varieties of the insects that are listed as kosher. Many have
set out at night to the fields to gather what they consider to be a special
treat, ahead of the ministry crop dusters, when the locusts are at rest and
cannot fly.
Nevertheless, with Passover slightly less than two weeks
away, some Israelis are beginning to wonder - is the Jewish State about to see its first plague ever?
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