March 27, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel battled a new swarm of locusts that crossed the border from Egypt.

Crop dusting planes on Monday dropped pesticides on the locusts, which are yellow and preparing to lay eggs. The yellow locusts eat much less than the swarms that have been entering Israel over the last three weeks, but the hatched eggs would pose a significant risk to Israeli crops since locust larvae will eat any green plant.

A swarm of about 30 million locusts first appeared near Cairo on March 2 and caused millions of dollars worth of crop damage in Egypt

The locust attacks come at the start of Passover, which recalls a destructive plague of locusts that the Bible says was sent by God to help free the Jewish slaves.
 

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