Locusts Return to the Holy Land

For those nostalgic for the days of yore when God sent plagues of locusts upon Egypt to express his ire, now may be a good time to vist Israel. The extreme south of Israel right now is suffering from the worst locust swarms in a long time, and everything green is being eaten.

Millions of locusts swarmed through Israel's Red Sea resort town of Eilat on Sunday, devouring crops and flowers in the country's south...Israeli agriculture officials sent crop dusters into the air to spray against the locusts that swept in from North Africa in the first such invasion since 1959. Eilat residents reported clouds of locusts eating palm trees bare and wiping out entire gardens....In the Bible, locusts were the eighth of 10 plagues that God inflicted on the ancient Egyptians before Pharaoh, their leader, let the Israelites go...Locusts ventured across the Negev desert as far north as the Dead Sea where farmers worried that larger numbers of insects said to be heading their way might eat through their crops.

On the upside, locusts are the only insects which are kosher, so Israeli and Thai workers are snatching up the little critters from the ground and eating them. They are considered a delicacy, and many are eating them raw.