Locust-fighting efforts have so far eradicated 95 percent of the swarms that arrived in Cairo on Saturday from the south of the country, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation. 
 
 Small numbers of locusts were seen on Monday above Nasr City, Cairo Stadium, and Cairo International Airport, according to a ministry statement released late Sunday and quoted by state run news agency MENA. 
 
 Local residents in Cairo’s Moqattam neighborhood set car tires alight in an effort to disperse the swarms. 
 
 The swarms first appeared in November 2012, currently continuing their seasonal migration to reproduction areas at the Red Sea coasts. In January, their numbers increased. 
 
 Nearly 17,452 locusts were exterminated, the statement said. 
 
 Egypt has been affected by locust swarms before, notably in 1954, when red locusts ate nearly 250,000 tons of corn in Egypt and North Africa. 
 
 Since then, locust swarms from the Arabian Peninsula have periodically attacked Egypt, including in 1968, 2004, 2007 and 2011, but without resulting in major crop damage. 
 
 The ministry said it is currently looking into unconfirmed reports about swarms of locusts in Ismailia. 

 An enormous swarm of locusts is plaguing Egypt, in a development that agricultural authorities admitted they failed to predict. 
 
 Egyptian Agricultural Minister Salah Abad Almoman said the swarm, comprising an estimated 30 million insects, descended on Giza, near southern Cairo, where it is causing great damage. 
 
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 “The armed forces and the Egyptian border units are trying to battle the swarm with various means at their disposal,” Almoman said, according to a report in Maariv, but the report did not detail what action was taken. The minister appealed to local residents to refrain from attempting to deal with the ravenous horde themselves. 
 
 “I ask the families living in the area afflicted with the swarm to not light car tires,” he said. “It doesn’t drive the locusts away, it only causes damage, and it could start a fire that will take human life.” 
 
 A ministry official said crop-spraying aircraft will be deployed to tackle the insects, which are a seasonal phenomenon in Egypt — albeit not in such large quantities. 
 
 Almoman said strong winds predicted for the coming days are expected to blow the insects in the direction of Saudi Arabia and the Red Sea. 
 
 Although winds usually take the insects past Israel, in 2004 a large swarm descended on Eilat and the surrounding area. It did not spread to the more fertile areas in the center and north of the country. 

 A plague of locusts descended Saturday on agricultural farms in Giza and on Cairo. Egyptian Agricultural Minister Salah Abad Almoman said the swarm is comprised of an estimated 30 million insects and was causing great damage. 
 
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 In Cairo, residents burned tires to create a black fog to keep the locusts from settling in the city. Swarms were also reported to have reached Egypt's Red Sea city of Zafarana, some 200 kilometers (124 miles) from Cairo, and then the Upper Egyptian city of Qena where locusts appeared in at least three major villages. 
 
 The Al-Ahram daily reported that since January, swarms of the insects - originating from Sudan - have been spotted along the Red Sea coast in south-eastern Egypt, north-eastern Sudan , Eritrea and Saudi Arabia. 
 
 In 2004, Egypt witnessed one of the most serious locust infestations in recent history, when farmers in 15 out of the country's 27 governorates suffered extensive crop damage. The Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture issued a statement saying it had set up task forces to deal with the locust plague. 
 
 A professor at Cairo University's Faculty of Agriculture said the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations warned of the locust danger last November, but the Ministry of Agriculture dismissed the warnings as rumors and refused to examine the issue. 
 
 Professor Nader Nur al-Din claimed that over the past few months he had also warned the ministry of the locust threat.
– Cue the locusts: Some 30 million of the insects descended on Egypt over the weekend, in a development that had the country's agricultural ministry scrambling to deploy insecticide-spraying helicopters to contain the outbreak. The main swarm appears to be centered around Giza, near southern Cairo, where Ynet reports that many residents were burning car tires to ward off the pests. Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reports that Egypt's ag minister was pleading with residents to let authorities deal with the infestation: "The armed forces and the Egyptian border units are trying to battle the swarm," he said. "I ask the families living in the area afflicted with the swarm to not light car tires. It doesn't drive the locusts away, it only causes damage." The locusts have neighboring Israel on alert, notes the AP, adding that its agricultural ministry today set up an emergency hotline and is asking Israelis to use it to report sightings. Today, however, the Egyptian government is claiming that it has eradicated up to 95% of the locusts around Cairo, reports the Egypt Independent, though it acknowledged it's still investigating reports elsewhere. A Cairo professor noted that the UN told the country about the coming swarm in November, but its warnings were brushed off.