He suggested further that a huge percentage of the region's major foodstuffs and sources of livelihood, including fruits, vegetables, legumes, fodder and a small but not insignificant amount of the cereals, were devoured by the locusts.

Djemal Pasha, who was the Supreme Commander of Syria and Arabia at the time of the locust infestation, launched a campaign to limit the devastation of the incident.

[4] Many people believed that prayer and petition were required to end the plague, as they viewed the swarm of locusts as a punishment from God for their sins.

[6] Midhat Bey, who was the official appointed to fight the infestation, helped enact a law which required every male between ages 15 and 60 in cities to collect 20 kilograms of locust eggs or pay a fine of £4.40.

The Allies' blockade was made worse by another introduced by Djemal Pasha, the commander of the Fourth Army of the Ottoman Empire in Syria region, where crops were barred from entering from the neighboring Syrian hinterland to Mount Lebanon,[7] and by the locusts infestation in 1915.