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- <text id=91TT1497>
- <title>
- July 08, 1991: American Notes:Florida
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- July 08, 1991 Who Are We?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 27
- American Notes
- FLORIDA
- Biblical Plague
- </hdr><body>
- <p> Swarming in numbers not seen since the early 1950s, voracious
- grasshoppers have descended upon Florida's Pasco, Hernando and
- Hillsborough counties, near the center of the state's $1
- billion-a-year citrus-growing industry. Already the insatiable
- insects have infested more than 10,000 acres of citrus groves,
- hayfields and pine forests. "The grasshoppers are so thick that
- the ground literally moves," says department of agriculture
- spokeswoman Michele McLawhorn.
- </p>
- <p> For the moment, the bugs appear to be unstoppable:
- available pesticides last only a short time, and grasshopper
- swarms quickly move on. But recent rainstorms may help kill the
- invaders, and scientists hope to end the plague once and for all
- by bombarding the vulnerable grasshopper hatchlings with
- pesticides in the fall.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
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