Israel’s 100 days war against locusts ends in victory

Since the first locust swarm entered the country on March 3, a joint cooperation between the ministries of Agriculture and Defense, regional councils and Negev farmers has stopped the pests before they did any farmland damage.

A team of 25 people in the fields – three people in a “war room” and dozens at ministry headquarters – have worked on the fight against the locusts, with each field team working an average of 15 hours a day in their assigned areas, the ministry said. The cost of the eradication has been estimated at NIS 7.5 million (€1.5 million), covering about 2,000 hours of spraying from the ground and 428 hours from the air, the ministry said.

According to the ministry there are only a scattering of a few individual locusts remaining, no longer in groups, and that there is no evidence of new swarms within the country or outside its borders. However, if any further invasions do occur, the Agriculture Ministry stressed that its staff members are prepared to handle them.