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“Swarms Of Locusts” Invade Israel From Egypt!
http://www.thelostancients.com/
Israel’s spraying of agricultural fields in the south of the country Wednesday morning succeeded in turning the tide in a millions-strong locust invasion from across the Egyptian border. The Agriculture Ministry said that thanks to the crop-dusting, the locusts weren’t flying or able to lift off from the ground.
Two planes, assisted by ground crews and trucks, on Wednesday sprayed with pesticides the migrating insects that had settled in the area the day before. The teams sprayed a swath of 1,850 acres, beginning the procedure at 6 a.m and continuing into the early afternoon.
“It’s like an insect cemetery down here,” Omri Eytana, a farmer from Moshav Kmehin the Nitzana area, told Army Radio a little after 10 a.m. “There are [only] hundreds of locusts in the air, and they’re still spraying.” He said his tomato crops were unharmed, because they are protected under nylon covers. Potato crops in the area were badly damaged, though, he said.
Shmuel Turgeman, who heads a government-run fund that organizes insurance for farmers, said the situation was “under control.” Inspectors were out in the field gauging the extent of the damage to potatoes and other crops.
Though the locusts were moving northward, they were not expected to reach central Israel’s major population centers because of a cold front that was predicted to drive the insects to the south.
Southern Israel’s skies were blackened Tuesday by the wings of millions of the locusts as the largest infestation to hit the country in decades swarmed across the Egyptian border and settled to chow down on the crops of local farmers.
A crop-dusting plane sprays a field in Israel’s Negev Desert, Wednesday (photo credit: Dror Garti/Flash90)
Local residents were instructed to stay indoors and close their windows and blinds.
“I’ve lived here for 30 years and we have yet to see anything like this,” said Yankale Moskovich, a farmer from Ramat Negev.
Throughout Tuesday afternoon and evening, the Agriculture Ministry and local farming associations sprayed the fields with pesticides, from the air and from the ground, in hopes of salvaging the crops, but to no avail. The giant swarm landed on fields across the Negev and caused what farmers estimate to be hundreds of thousands of shekels in damages.
The locusts also caused damages to fields cultivated by Palestinian farmers in the Gaza Strip, and the Hamas government instructed residents on Wednesday to close their windows.
The Islamist group ruling the coastal Palestinian territory was quoted by the Chinese Xinhua news agency saying the swarms of locusts were neither big nor harmful.
Saleh Bakheet, director general of plant protection department in the Ministry of Agriculture, said in a press statement that the plague “represents no kind of danger or harm to people and plants,” and that “the situation is under full control and protection of the Ministry of Agriculture.”
A Palestinian farmer displays locusts at a farm in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on March 5 (photo credit: Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)
On Wednesday, a prominent rabbi weighed in on the debate among Orthodox Jews as to the kashrut of locust-based crunchy snacks, saying that despite popular opinion to the contrary, they were forbidden by Jewish law.
Rabbi Yizhak Yosef, the son of former chief Sephardic rabbi and Shas mentor Ovadia Yosef, said he had instructed students at his yeshiva, Hazon Ovadia, not to eat the insects. “We are not familiar with their names and their signs; we have no clear tradition about them,” he said.
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That’s odd, the article yells they swarmed isreal but they’re a palestinian holding one. Too bad they don’t just invade isreal. We need to stop giving israel 3 billion every year when they’re a rich country and we’re 16 trillion in debt. The israelis also need to stop invading and ‘ruling’ the palestinians, the israelis are getting to be a sore on the world, and on our debt.
Instead of spraying them with poison, get big small holed nets, catch them, roast them and give them to those that are starving.
Throughout the world, people are eating bugs.
To me, I can afford to go to the grocery and get a nice sirloin steak but to someone starving, and in many parts of the world, bugs are edible.
Locusts are low in fat, high in protein and according to a woman I met at card club, from Taiwan, she claims roasted in sesame seed oil are delicious.
When you are given lemons, make lemonade.
Instead of allowing these insects to eat our crops, gather them, roast and eat them. You then will have the crops and protein.
Once you poison the locusts though, they are of no use and the poison gets on the crops.
Natures way of feeding the poor double time – again catch the little buggers (pun intended), DO NOT POISON THEM), roast and give them to the poor.
I saw a program on TV (Food Channel) and many people in Asia, India and Africa eat insects.