An around-the-clock struggle was being waged today against a huge swarm of locust hoppers which covered a 250, 000-dunam area of the central Negev and which were headed for Beersheba.
Four spray planes and 12 pest-destroying units of the Israel Plants Protection Department, aided by hundreds of Negev settlers, fought the invasion, spearheads of which have already reached the Beersheba area, where hundreds of municipal workers have joined the battle.
A number of agricultural kibbutzim were stripped of crops by the locust hoppers. Agricultural experts said that the current battle was only the first stage of a much larger offensive to be launched when the hoppers sprout wings.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
