Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Mormon Crickets Invading Western States
Yahoo! News ^ | 6/13/03 | Sandra Chereb - AP

Posted on 06/13/2003 11:33:36 AM PDT by NormsRevenge

PALOMINO VALLEY, Nev. - Swarms of Mormon crickets are marching across the West, destroying rangeland and crops, slickening highways with their carcasses and leaving disgusted residents in their wake.

Photo
AP Photo

"It's yucky," said Amy Nisbet of Elko in northeast Nevada, where this year crickets made their first appearance in recent memory. "You drive down the street and they pop like bubble wrap."

Mild winters and three years of drought have provided ideal conditions for the insects, which hatch in the spring and feed through the summer. Experts say this year's infestation in Nevada, Utah and Idaho could be the worst in decades.

Five million acres are infested in Nevada with the 2 1/2-inch long creeping insects, said Jeff Knight, entomologist with the Nevada Department of Agriculture.

"I've seen them eat weeds in a field but leave the alfalfa," Knight said. "Other times, they'll just strip the crop bare."

Their voracious appetites take in anything — sagebrush, alfalfa, wheat, barley, clover, seeds, grasses, vegetables. At a density of just one cricket per square yard, they can consume 38 pounds of forage per acre as they pass through an area. They don't fly, but can hop and crawl a mile in a day and up to 50 miles in a season. And before they die in the fall, they lay the eggs that will become next year's swarm.

The Mormon cricket actually is a katydid, similar to a grasshopper. It got its name in 1848 when swarms invaded the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah. According to lore, the settlers prayed for divine assistance that arrived in the form of gulls, which ate the insects and saved the crops.

Though Knight couldn't provide an economic damage estimate, he said this year's infestation is twice as widespread as last year. The bugs are showing up in places they haven't been seen before, such as Elko's city limits and Palomino Valley north of Reno.

Last week, Elko County commissioners declared a state of emergency because of the worsening two-week infestation. Officials in southwestern Idaho say the infestation there is the worst since World War II.

"They've been building up there on the Boise front for several years, but last year was the first year everything seems to have coalesced and really erupted," said Mike Cooper of the Idaho Department of Agriculture.

"They're cyclic and they build up over a number of years, kind of peak, and then usually some kind of natural disease comes in and starts taking them down," Cooper said.

In Utah, agriculture officials estimate 6 million acres — more than double last year's plague — will be infested before the crickets die off.

Dick Wilson of the Utah Department of Agriculture said the dismal predictions were "all true. (My staff) are all out in the field, working seven days a week" fighting the bugs.

Earlier this spring, Nevada treated about 66,000 acres with an insecticide that kills the insects before they mature. But as the treatment cuts down their numbers in one area, they pop up somewhere else.

The chief weapon is carbaryl, an insecticide commonly known as Sevin. It is mixed with bran and spread before the crickets as they advance. Crickets lured to the bait quickly die. The poisoned carcasses are consumed by cannibalistic fellow crickets, which also die.

State officials said their priority is to protect public lands, crops — and motorists. In Idaho the state has posted warning signs on State Route 55. Crickets smashed by cars create a mush slicker than ice.

"We're doing our best to keep them off the highway," said Martin Larraneta, a state entomologist coordinating cricket controls in Elko. "It can be like a grease slick."

So far there are no reports of accidents caused by the crickets.

While serious, this year's outbreak isn't the most severe in Nevada history, experts said.

A 1939 state publication noted an infestation in Eureka County in 1882, when trains were unable to travel the main line of the Central Pacific Railroad "due to the rails being so thoroughly greased with crushed crickets," state archivist Guy Rocha said.

In the 1930s, a band of crickets 12 miles long and at times several feet deep was reported in Elko County, Rocha said.

The crickets have existed for millions of years and were once a food source for American Indians. But the swarms covering fields and roads and houses horrify modern residents.

"When it comes to something that's six-legged, people have a big problem with that," Knight said.

___

On the Net:

http://extension.usu.edu/hoppers/htmfiles/mormoncrickets.htm




TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Idaho; US: Nevada; US: Utah
KEYWORDS: crickets; invading; mormon; states; western
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-48 next last
To: NormsRevenge
They are cannibals, too. So far I saw more in the Boise foothills last year than this year, but Summer has only just begun . . .
21 posted on 06/13/2003 12:52:14 PM PDT by cruiserman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge; CCWoody; drstevej; P-Marlowe; Wrigley; CARepubGal; RnMomof7

Full-grown adult male

from Utah State University...

"...The Mormon cricket is not a true cricket. The insect resembles more a lifestyle of a grasshopper....Male and female Mormon crickets are large insects and can reach lengths of two and one-half inches during the adult stage. The female Mormon cricket is distinguished by the long ovipositor that also looks like a type of "stinger" located at the end of the abdomen. The male lacks this ovipositor. The Mormon cricket can be economically devastating..."

"...Young Mormon crickets are called nymphs. These nymphs develop during the spring months. They undergo seven stages of development called in-stars. It takes 60 to 90 days for the Mormon cricket to pass through these seven stages and obtain the adult stage...The Mormon cricket cannot fly, but is still an extremely mobile insect. When the crickets are young, they do not migrate long distances. After about the fourth in-star and during the adult stage the Mormon crickets become ravenous and start banding together. Once the crickets have banded together, they begin migrating. During their migrations they destroy everything in their path...

"...The most effective way to reduce Mormon cricket populations is to use carbaryl bait...The idea is to apply a barrier of bait around or in front of a band of migrating crickets. Once the first wave consumes the bait they will die within a few minutes. The crickets coming from behind will eat the dead crickets causing a chain reaction of crickets being killed by the bait. Mormon crickets do not fly so they will almost always hit the barrier of poisoned bait...It is best to apply the bait when the crickets are still young or in the developing stages..."

22 posted on 06/13/2003 12:54:23 PM PDT by Alex Murphy (Athanasius contra mundum!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
This can reach Biblical proportions.
23 posted on 06/13/2003 12:54:48 PM PDT by Consort
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RnMomof7
Fraidy-cat. We get them chairs and fruit punch, then seize control of the conversation. We figure if they're listening to Catholic doctrine at our house, they're not spreading Mormon doctrine to the people next door.
24 posted on 06/13/2003 12:55:15 PM PDT by nina0113
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: SwinneySwitch
In the 1800's, Indians would roast them and have a feast!

I've driven thru them. I guess I could scrape them off my grill and tires, not to forget the highway... take them home and add some garlic, onion and bell peppers and have my own faheeta (however you spell it) feast.

25 posted on 06/13/2003 12:55:37 PM PDT by bedolido
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: bedolido
adds new meaning to the words.. "Honey, Im gonna run out and get something to eat down the road" .. Or picking up some food from a "Drive-Thru" .. I don't think it would qualify as Fast Food , tho.. :-\ crrrunchhh!
26 posted on 06/13/2003 1:02:04 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi..Support FRee Republic..DemRats fear an informed populace..Spread the word;They're Done!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: bedolido
fajita
27 posted on 06/13/2003 1:05:18 PM PDT by SwinneySwitch (Freedom is not Free - Support the Troops!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
At least they all stay together.

If you get one by itself it drinks all your beer.
28 posted on 06/13/2003 1:06:55 PM PDT by ko_kyi
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

I hear they can strip a full grown cow to the bone in 3 minutes
29 posted on 06/13/2003 1:12:05 PM PDT by KneelBeforeZod (I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour but heaven knows I'm miserable now)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
LOL LOL
30 posted on 06/13/2003 1:24:14 PM PDT by RnMomof7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: nina0113
We figure if they're listening to Catholic doctrine at our house, they're not spreading Mormon doctrine to the people next door.

Ahh the containment policy...

31 posted on 06/13/2003 1:25:55 PM PDT by RnMomof7
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
"Good point, big birds would probably love these crunchy little fellas."

Sure enough. Back on the prairie in the late 1800s, my folks would acquire a huge flock of chickens and let them roam freely during cricket and grasshopper years. The chickens were very well fed and the crickets/grasshoppers were nicely kept under control.

By the end of the season we not only were selling eggs by the carload, we had enough free-range chicken to sell that we could have supplied "The Colonel."

32 posted on 06/13/2003 1:30:53 PM PDT by nightdriver
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: CCWoody
BWAHAHAHAHA! What do they taste like?

Like grasshoppers I assume. Just remember to break off the head before chowing down.

33 posted on 06/13/2003 2:27:30 PM PDT by Harmless Teddy Bear (We create the future with our words, with our thoughts, with our deeds, and with our beliefs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
You haven't lived until you have walked across a SOLID carpet of crickets. A gooey crunch-crunch.
34 posted on 06/13/2003 2:33:57 PM PDT by TexasRepublic
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: RnMomof7
How long did the other thread last?
35 posted on 06/13/2003 2:42:36 PM PDT by Wrigley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Wrigley; JesseShurun; CCWoody; Calvinist_Dark_Lord; Alex Murphy; fishtank; CARepubGal; snerkel; ...
 
Well that'll be the day
When you say good-bye
Yes that'll be the day
When you start to cry
You say you're goin' to Kolob
You know it's a lie
'cause that'll be the day
When you fry


36 posted on 06/13/2003 3:21:23 PM PDT by drstevej
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
They don't look like carpentry tools or masonry signs do they?

I dated a mormon girl years ago. She didn't have any signs on her underwear either. Please, don't ask how I know!;^)
37 posted on 06/13/2003 3:56:26 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Alex Murphy
The Mormon cricket is not a true cricket
38 posted on 06/13/2003 3:58:48 PM PDT by P-Marlowe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: drstevej
That's a keeper.

39 posted on 06/13/2003 4:04:58 PM PDT by Wrigley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: NormsRevenge
Send in the Seagulls....
40 posted on 06/13/2003 4:10:17 PM PDT by thinking
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-48 next last

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson