Posted on 10/15/2019 11:03:15 AM PDT by Red Badger
Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Experts said an influx of crickets that some San Antonio residents have called a "plague" resulted from "perfect" weather conditions that allowed the insects to thrive this year.
Residents said they first started noticing huge swarms of crickets gathering Tuesday in locations including the University of Texas at San Antonio.
One man tweeted a video of himself eating a fistful of crickets with a caption parodying a letter from someone involved in a disaster.
"Dearest Mother," user @MeepMeepNation tweeted. "We are approaching the third day of the cricket plague. What sanity remains is quickly being whittled away. Starving students are now accepting these vile creatures as a source of sustenance. I fear cannibalism is next."
Molly Keck, an entomologist with the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service, said the weather is to blame for the plentiful insects.
"It's technically not an invasion because they didn't come from anywhere, right. We just have the perfect three conditions that kind of have to happen consecutively for them to do just really, really well this year," she told Accuweather.
She said the conditions that contributed to the cricket explosion were a dry summer, late rains and an influx of cool weather.
"We had the perfect storm of the perfect conditions to make these cricket populations explode," Keck said.
Experts said the cricket invasion could last for a few more weeks.
Just = Must.............dang autocorrect!.........
We get this every year. Some years worse than the others.
We get frogs.........
..SA must have done something terrible to bring on a plague of Biblical proportions...
The rural area I live in is about 50 miles north and west of SA-it is cricket season here, too-but there are no swarms of them-I shopped at the grocery store in the county seat on my way home from a jobsite in the next county-I didn’t see more than the usual number of crickets for this time of year at that jobsite or in town-and there are just enough of them here at my place to get inside and provide amusement for my cats when they find one...
San Antone
Randy Rogers Band
Album Nothing Shines Like Neon
[Verse 1]
This highway’s sure been good to me
White lines as far as you can see
There’s a girl from down around Poteet
Wants to meet me down on Frio Street
[Chorus]
San Antone, San Antone
I been gone for way too long
But you gotta go when you gotta go
Like Crockett at the Alamo
Ya’ll can find me down in San Antone
[Verse 2]
Where I come from, those cowboys know
Just how to roll right with the flow
Shiner Bock and dominoes
And Reckless on the radio
[Chorus]
San Antone, San Antone
I been gone for way too long
But you gotta go when you gotta go
Like Crockett at the Alamo
Ya’ll can find me down in San Antone
[Verse 3]
Once I reach that Frio Street
Gonna kiss the ground beneath my feet
Then find a band with a fiddle man
And dance to every song I can
[Chorus]
San Antone, San Antone
I been gone for way too long
But you gotta go- when you gotta go
Like Crockett at the Alamo
Ya’ll can find me down in San Antone
[Outro]
Someday when you lay me low
Like Crockett at the Alamo
Lay me down in San Antone
I will admit to our office hearing a cricket chirping inside the other day. Unusual for a high rise.
I will say that San Antonio is often plagued with Monarch butterflies. Swarms of them. None this year - so far.
But when they do swarm in - your windshield and front end gets nasty in just an hour of driving. Don’t bother with your windshield washers. That just smears the mess. Must make a daily trip to the car wash.
I would first check to see if the Socialist Castro brothers were in town before I made that determination.
From the 1st time I saw the lyrics of that song, I was pretty sure no one in their right mind would meet a girl or anyone else on Frio street-especially after dark and unarmed-not a good place...
But Poteet is a nice country town...
RE Edible:
Yeah... five, or six maybe... but several hundred thousand, swarming around YOU might start to the get the idea that “sauteed Red Badger” just might be on THEIR menu as well...
I remember back in the 80’s in Austin when We had Crickets so dense that the side walls of IH-35 lower level were solid Black. We even found them inside the Computer at the Parts Store when it Crashed one day. The Service Guys for the Hardware found they had gotten inside of the HDD and crashed the Heads on the HDD. (10 MB Drive that was like 14” diameter)
Just like Posted above We “Crunched” with each step We took.
I’ve got to ask- how the heck does one Fillet a Cricket ? Tweezers, Pen Knife and those Lighted Magnifying Glasses ?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.