For the week of August 14 - 20, 2002

Insects on a mission

Mormon crickets invade 
Danskin Mountains

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By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer

The most noticeable thing along a barren stretch of U.S. 20 east of Mountain Home is the smell.

Like an unpleasant cousin to burning rubber, the rancorous odor of millions of dead grasshopper-like insects baking under the summer sun is almost unbearable. A seven-mile section of the highway is smeared red by the bodies, and more of the large bugs are squished into the asphalt with the passing of every vechicle.

Apparently, Mormon crickets are cannibals, too. Express Photos by Willy Cook

The road’s shoulders—along with nearby grasses, sagebrush and willows—are peppered with the 2-inch-long, black katydids called Mormon crickets.

Mormon crickets are native to Idaho and the rest of the West, and their boom-and-bust lifecycle creates summer invasions like this one, in which they overrun regions in astonishing numbers. The crickets have been spotted this summer from the Danskin Mountains east of Mountain Home to near Horseshoe Bend north of Boise, and the invasion has lasted several months now.

The largest concentrations in Idaho were spotted in western Elmore County and near Horsehoe Bend in June. A few sightings were reported in the Boise Foothills.

This year’s invasion of Mormon Crickets is probably the largest in more than 50 years, said Idaho Department of Agriculture Bureau of Feeds and Plant Services Chief Mike Cooper,.

"This is bigger than anything we’ve seen in a long time," he said.

Mormon cricket outbreaks are a cyclical phenomenon that has boom and bust cycles. A current migration pattern for the insects has taken them to U.S. 20 near Mountain Home, where millions have been killed by passing cars. Express Photos by Willy Cook

Mormon crickets got their name in 1848 when hordes of the insects lay siege to the crops of early Mormon pioneers in Utah. The story goes that when the settlers prayed for help, hordes of seagulls suddenly appeared and ate enough crickets to save the crops and the settlers’ lives.

Mormon crickets damage forage plants on range land and cultivated crops in the path of their migrations, which can be up to a mile a day and 50 miles a season. Migrating bands can completely destroy fields of sugarbeets, small grains and alfalfa. During a 1937 outbreak in Montana and Wyoming, the insects caused nearly $900,000 in crop damages.

The critters have been particularly thick this summer in southern Idaho, Utah and Nevada. In one location north of Reno, Mormon crickets have attracted more than 5,000 feeding seagulls.

But the gulls are not expected to put a dent in the cricket population.

"There’s more crickets out there than the seagulls will ever be able to eat," Nevada Division of Agriculture Jeff Knight told the Associated Press.

Agricultural impacts this summer were not as severe as they could have been. Experts anticipated the invasion, and farmers had the opportunity to fight back using poisoned bait.

The Idaho Department of Agriculture gave out free bags of a poison, called Carbaryl, to farmers.

Additionally, the Bureau of Land Management also used Carbaryl to help slow the outbreak.

Even Idaho’s congressional delegation weighed in, calling for the eradication of the insects in order to prevent devastating crop losses.

"Any delay will result in a missed opportunity to control the current and future devastation wrought by this insect," the lawmakers wrote in a statement.

From less than one per square yard in mountain habitats, Mormon cricket densities may grow gradually over a period of several years, reaching densities of adults as great as 100 per square yard. Once populations have reached outbreak proportions, the crickets begin migrations to foothills, range land and crops, according to the University of Wyoming.

High densities may persist for years. A major outbreak that began in 1931 continued for 17 years and infested 19 million acres in 11 states at its peak.

 

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