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Guess who's coming to dinner? (AP)
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ZoomIn: The locusts having lunch on Egypt (AP)
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ZoomOut: The locusts having lunch on Egypt (AP)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners November 19, 2004 |
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Late update: Swarms of locust are enjoying the Red Sea resort city of Eilat at Israel's southern tip. The swarms have also been spotted in the Negev toon They are described as reddish and averageing about 7 cm long (about 3 inches). Tomorrow, Israeli officials say they will spray insecticide to kill them and try to prevent their northern migration.
The Plant Protection and Inspection Services declared a state of high alert in the south of the country Thursday afternoon, fearing that swarms of locusts would head toward Israel's coastal region from the Sinai Peninsula, Haaretz reported.
Locusts were spotted at the northeastern Sinai town of El Arish Thursday, after migrating eastward along Egypt's entire Mediterranean coast. "Certainly in this region 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."
Cressman said the locust swarm was the worst in 15 years.
Israeli officials have been monitoring the locusts' movement for weeks. Earlier in November, a few of the reddish arthropods were spotted along the Mediterranean and in coastal cities.
The Agriculture Ministry received a request from its Palestinian counterpart to coordinate steps to eliminate the locusts if they arrive in the area, Haaretz reported. The ministry said if the locusts do hit Israel, they will be quickly exterminated.
Leftist groups are expected to protest the ethnic cleansing.
Out of Egypt
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.
The locusts, some at least seven centimeters (2.75 inches) long, caused Cairenes to squat, and swat and stare as they (the locusts) 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 U.N. 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.
However, the FAO in Rome issued an alert that control operations were hampered because local farmers dispersed swarms by burning tires and other materials to protect their fields.
Cressman said the worst may be over for Cairenes, since there were no additional reports of incoming locusts. He said the swarms originated in West Africa and traveled over Libya to Egypt.
"Perhaps now all of them or most have moved farther east," he said.
Cressman said he did not expect the locusts to more farther east than the Israeli coast and added that they were too immature to breed.
Though only a nuisance so far in the Middle East, FAO officials are closely following the possible locust migration to traditional breeding grounds along the Red Sea coast that could eventually affect impoverished countries such as Sudan, which is already undergoing a severe humanitarian crisis.
If the locusts were allowed to breed in these areas, "those new generation swarms in early next summer could move into Sudan for the summer rains and at that point there may be threat to food security," said Cressman.
Locusts can multiply 10- to 16-fold over a generation.
"The swarms are looking for first for food and second for favorable breeding grounds," said Christian Pantenius, program coordinator of the FAO office in Egypt.
He said the affected countries are "doing their utmost best" to control the locusts.
Locusts, which normally live between two and 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.
Locust Recipes
John the Baptist Stir-Fry
Israel Insider notes: despite the un-Jewish name, it should be remembered that John (Yochanan) was Jewish, and that locust-eating is certified kosher for people who belong to a culture with a locust-eating tradition.
Ingredients
10 good-sized locusts
1 tsp clear Honey
2-3 dried Dates, chopped
Sesame Seeds, toasted
Sesame oil
Root Ginger, small amount crushed
2 spring onions
½ Green Pepper
Juice of ½ Orange
Salt and Pepper
Instructions
Using a thick-bottomed frying pan or wok, heat the sesame oil. Start the stir fry with the ingredients that require the most cooking: the root ginger and the green pepper, followed by the spring onions, the dates and the locusts.
Add the honey and orange juice, stirring all the time and cook for a few minutes. Serve immediately and sprinkle the sesame seeds on the top. The stir-fry may be presented on a bed of saffron rice or on salad leaves. Alternatively, the part-cooked locusts can be fried with a little oil and salt, then served.
The AP contributed to this report.
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