Mormon Crickets Return

Mormon Crickets Return

Rick Worthington
Rick Worthington
While on a roadtrip in the mountains I recently ran into one of the largest insects you can find in the Rocky Mountain range, the mormon cricket. And when I say I ran into one, I really mean way more than I could ever count.

Farmers are not big fans of Mormon Crickets. Mormon crickets will devour crops as well as eat up lawns and gardens.

I spoke to Deputy John Cossel with the Owyhee County Sheriff's Office who says it was a "big hatch" this year, but locals have seen bigger.

"I used to run some cows in Owyhee County and they were so thick going across the highway, it made a slick spot and like driving on ice, cars would skid cause there were so many crickets."

He says they'll be putting out commercial bait this week and the Bureau of Land Management is also putting bait on federal land to stop the swarms which are moving east.

Jason Thomas is an expert on bugs and tells us Mormon Crickets are not Crickets at all, but instead a a shieldbacked katydid...but they are a serious agricultural pest.

"We'll have them this year, and then we might go two three five years even and then all of a sudden they show up because of the spring and the weather conditions and here they come."

Mormon Crickets are fairly common in Utah, Idaho and Nevada.

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