Nevada town is hit by ‘biblical’ invasion of cannibal Mormon crickets

A small Nevada town is terrorized by a “biblical” infestation of cannibalistic Mormon crickets that have blanketed roads, invaded buildings and alarmed residents.

The two-inch-long pests that have taken over Elko, Nevada are not only devouring all crops but also posing a hazard to traffic, leaving roads dangerously slippery after millions of crickets were crushed by cars, their innards creating a slippery surface. .

Residents also face the swarms of insects that cover the ground, crawl up walls and infest buildings.

Despite their name, the bugs are technically large grasshoppers that look a lot like grasshoppers, according to the University of Nevada at Reno. They do not fly, but walk or hop. And although completely harmless to humans, the insects are a threat to pests and scare away insect-afraid locals.

Creeping footage shared on social media shows the city under attack along with several other Nevada counties as the swarm of insects moves across the state

Creeping footage shared on social media shows the city under attack along with several other Nevada counties as the swarm of insects moves across the state.

“When we looked here, the whole wall was just covered. It really, really scared me,’ said resident Colette Reynolds KLAS.

A spokesperson for the Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital told KSL that the hospital had to deploy brooms and leaf blowers to clear the way for patients to enter the building.

The Nevada Department of Transportation plowed and sanded the roads to get rid of crushed insects that made the roads slippery.

“You can see they move and crawl and the whole road crawls and it makes your skin crawl. It’s so disgusting,’ Stephanie Garrett added.

Residents also face the throngs of insects covering the ground, crawling up walls and infesting buildings.

The two-inch-long pests that have taken over Elko, Nevada are also devouring all crops

The plague-like images also show how dangerous the roads are now with the added layer of crushed bugs

The plague-like footage also shows how dangerous the roads are now with the added layer of crushed bugs.

“They get run over, two or three come out and eat their buddy, and they get run over, and the roads can be covered in crickets and they can get slippery,” Agriculture Department entomologist Jeff Knight told KSL. of Nevada. .

“The biggest problem is those afternoon thunderstorms and put a little water on it and it gets slippery, we’ve had a number of cricket accidents.”

Knight has been treating Nevada farmland for Mormon crickets since 1976 and has experienced about 40 outbreaks during that time.

‘The Band of Crickets at Elko [Nevada] is probably a thousand acres, and we’ve had strips even bigger than that,” he said.

“The drought is probably what caused them to start hatching. Once they do, they have the upper hand, so their populations go up for several years and then go down.

Mormon crickets are named after swarms of insects that destroyed the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah in the mid-19th century.

The Nevada Department of Transportation plowed and sanded the roads to get rid of crushed bugs that made the roads slippery

Swarms moving through Nevada can last four to six years before being subdued by other insects and predators.

Knight added that the insects lay their eggs in the summer, which go dormant in the winter and hatch in the spring. But the newborns were delayed due to the unusually rainy winter, he said.

Swarms moving through Nevada can last four to six years before being subdued by other insects and predators, Knight told the Guardian.

‘[Population density] this is what pushes them to say: ‘There are too many of us here, we have to start moving’.

Mormon cricket infestations aren’t new to the western United States, and there’s not much residents can do but wait, entomologists said.

Around this time last year, Oregon was also battling massive swarms of Mormon crickets and grasshoppers.

Despite its name, the Mormon cricket (pictured) is actually a shield-backed katydid, not a cricket. It takes its name from the Mormon settlers of Utah, who encountered them pushing west, and for the prominent role they played in the miracle of the gulls.

Not only do insects feast on crops, but they are also cannibals and will eat each other, dead or alive, if they are not sated with protein.

The area had been hit by drought, which created ideal conditions for the eggs of Mormon grasshoppers and locusts to hatch.

Mormon crickets are named after swarms of insects that destroyed the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah in the mid-19th century.

They continued to devastate corn, oats, wheat, rye and barley, some of the state’s most profitable crops, according to Utah State University.