03/15/05 The Idaho cricket war is already underway

Its very early for this to happen, 30 to 40 days ahead of schedule but Mormon crickets have already started hatching in Owyhee and Elmore counties. TSCHOLL "The crickets are just now coming out. They're very, very tiny. What's amazing was how many of them there were in each one of these hatching beds." Les Tscholl of the Idaho Department of Agriculture has lined up field scouts to begin looking for hatching beds so they can plot the locations of Mormon crickets. TSCHOLL "We do two things. We can provide bait to the ranchers, farmers and other land owners to apply to the area and we can also do that cost share program for aerial application where the state pays two thirds, the landowner pays one third." Tscholl says the mild winter, a lack of moisture and large numbers of crickets last year probably mean record numbers this year and no, a wet spring won't help us. TSCHOLL "Unless it gets really, really cold then maybe these little instars will freeze but it would have to rain on them and get cold and I don't see that happening." The state has two hotlines set up to respond to landowner needs for crickets or grasshoppers. For southeastern Idaho call the Twin Falls number 733-5119 and in southwestern Idaho call the Boise hotline 685-6977. Today's Idaho Ag News Bill Scott