EILAT, Israel – Swarms of locusts devoured lawns and palm trees Sunday in southern Israel, panicking farmers and prompting children to ask about biblical plagues.
Eilat residents on Sunday found their lawns blanketed in red with the insects. Some children questioned their parents if darkness, the ninth biblical plague after locusts, was soon to come.
According to the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, the Egyptians suffered 10 plagues before Pharoah agreed to let the enslaved Israelites free. Locusts were the eighth plague.
The pests swept up from Egypt, working their way north on a path that could take them to the West Bank town of Jericho, where Secretary of State Colin Powell was slated to meet Palestinian officials today.
The red locusts originated in West Africa and traveled over Libya and Egypt. The insects are present every year in Africa, but this year’s swarms are especially large because of prolonged periods of heavy rainfall, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Officials in the Red Sea resort of Eilat said many of the plants and trees in city parks had been stripped of their foliage by the pests. The locusts seemed to prefer palm and olive trees, basil, grape leaves and grass.
The insects, which normally live between two and six months, eat their weight – about 0.07 ounces – in crops every day. They can travel 120 miles a day.
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