5-2 FB Crickets

 Last year I asked Idaho Farm Bureau range management specialist Wally Butler to comment on the problems experienced with Mormon crickets and grasshoppers and he expected there would be some serious problems in the near future. Well as a follow-up I talked recently with Idaho Department of agriculture entomologist Jodie Ellis about problems with these insects and here’s what she said: “Right now if we look at the Mormon cricket and grasshopper situation in Idaho, the thing about those guys is that they are cyclical and that means that the way their life histories will run is that their populations will build way up and that’s when it gets really disgusting. And then their populations will go down because we have a good program here with management  so we have been riding a very good wave here where it has been slow and low for quite a while. What I predict will happen if the weather doesn’t get real bad what we probably will see are those kinds of populations starting their way up again. As an entomologist this is about a 10 year cycle. I would predict we are going to start seeing it coming up again in the next few years depending on environmental concerns and we will probably have a huge population that will require more management.