Mormon Cricket Invasion Part 1
Mormon Crickets are invading again this year.
We are currently seeing a major increase in the population of them in Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and in Nevada.
They are certainly a problem for Farmers, and have destroyed countless crops, but ranchers have problems with the bugs too.
Owyhee County rancher Elias Jaca recently spoke to the Idaho Statesman about trying to keep the swarm of Mormon crickets overrunning their land and creating a nuisance for their livestock.
"We are trying to kill them before they kill us. The Mormon crickets came from the hills 5 miles back, and when they are little you can kill them, but when they get bigger and they are scattered all over the place, you can't kill as many of them. "
Spreading bait is the most effective way of treating the pests. Since the crickets are cannibalistic, Jaca says, they'll kill themselves by eating other crickets who have died from being poisoned.
"The Mormon Crickets, they eat each other. If one of them gets some poison, and dies, then the other crickets will come eat him and then get some of the poison and die too. It kind of multiplies that way."
