Swarms of pink locusts plague Egypt

Seattle Times news services

AP A locust chews on plants near Cairo, Egypt. Millions of the insects, some more than 3 inches long, pose a possible threat to agriculture.

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

CAIRO, Egypt — In an echo of the biblical plagues that struck in the time of Moses, millions of pink locusts swarmed into northern Egypt yesterday for the first time in 50 years, prompting authorities to order emergency pesticide spraying to protect the region's important agriculture industry.

The swarms of millions flew high above tall towers or swooped down onto tree-lined streets, where scared pedestrians stamped on them or ran for cover.

The flying insects arrived from neighboring Libya after devouring the countryside in central and western Africa in past months. Locusts also were spotted in Crete and Lebanon.

But locust experts said they were unlikely to wreak similar havoc in Egypt, where agriculture is a cornerstone of the economy.

"This is really horrible," said one man as he ran past a building where locusts, some of them more than 3 inches long, smacked into office windows or landed on cars.

Authorities battled swarms at Cairo international airport, but flights were unaffected.

"They are driven by strong winds. ... Under current climatic conditions they will not likely cause damage," said Christian Pantenius, a locust expert with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Pantenius said the locusts were arriving in medium-sized swarms. "They will very likely either die or migrate farther to the south," he said, adding that the Saudi and Sudanese authorities had been alerted.

Agriculture Minister Ahmed el-Leithy said the locusts appeared to pose no serious threat to Egypt's crops "because the swarms are continuing to move and are not fully grown." But he said 50 pest-eradication teams had been rushed out to spray pesticides in farm areas.

Farmers without pesticides set smoky fires and made loud noises with machinery in hopes of keeping locusts away from their fields.
 
Agriculture is a key sector of the Egyptian economy, employing millions of people in the North African country, which has a population of about 70 million.

The locust swarms have already traveled on the wind from North Africa to Cyprus. They can form swarms of tens of millions, occupying hundreds of square miles.

In the Old Testament, locusts were the eighth of 10 plagues which God brought on the Egyptians before Pharaoh, their ruler, relented and let the enslaved children of Israel go.

Pantenius said it was the first time locusts in such numbers had hit the region around Cairo since the 1950s. Small numbers of the ravenous insects were spotted in Egypt during a locust plague that struck countries from eastern to western Africa in 1986-89.

The swarms in the late 1980s were West Africa's most serious outbreak until this year's infestation. Swarms are still present in Mauritania and Niger, but the insects have also moved northward in search of food in the Maghreb region of North Africa, which includes Morocco and Algeria.

The FAO said big locust outbreaks like that now afflicting western and northern Africa generally last for several years.