Wind-driven locusts reach Tel Aviv

Residents of central Israel on Saturday reported the arrival of locusts in the major cities of Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Rishon Lezion, Petah Tikva, and as far north as the coastal city of Netanya.

The Nature and Parks Authority urged calm and said that the insects that had reached the country’s population center were the last remnants of the swarm that entered the country from Egypt days before. The authority added that the remaining groups of locusts will be scattered by the wind and pose no threat to the area.

As residents of central Israel took to social media to document the arrival of the insects, one resident of Modi’in, a city situated between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, tweeted a photo of a locust that landed in his garden.

Another swarm of locusts of an unspecified size reportedly entered southern Israel Saturday afternoon, but because the area in which they were found has no agriculture, they will be sprayed with pesticides on Sunday.

The Agriculture Ministry said that areas of southern Israel adjacent to the Egyptian border were sprayed with pesticides earlier in the day.

The plagues of destructive insects first arrived in Israel earlier this week after flying over the border from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula. The first swarm caused an estimated hundreds of thousands of shekels in damage to Israeli crops.