Pesky crickets on the march

Mormon crickets attacked 2.7 million acres of western Utah rangeland, farms and desert last year, and this year's onslaught probably will be worse.

Year by year, as drought continues, crickets have generally increased in number. "We expect that to happen again, barring some weather pattern that changes," said Matt Palmer, the Utah State University extension agent who covers Tooele County.

"There's likely to be more this year than there was last year," in terms of infested acres.

Crickets already have begun to hatch from their eggs. They show up when the soil temperature reaches 40 degrees, he said.

Tooele Valley's first horde has emerged on the western side of South Willow Canyon. "Their numbers are pretty high" and the young crickets look healthy, "which is a disappointment."

"They're hatching in pretty big numbers," Palmer said.

Mormon crickets have been infamous since June 1848, when the insects began to devour the Utah pioneers' crops. Settlers fought them without success. They faced starvation as millions of bugs invaded.

Then, as recorded in diaries and recollections, came what has been known ever after as the miracle of the seagulls. A white cloud of California gulls descended and feasted on the crickets, disgorging and eating more. The crops were saved.

Today vastly more cropland is involved than 156 years ago, and gulls can do little to stop the modern infestation.

"Every cricket has an average of 86 eggs it lays, so you can see how fast populations can get out of control," said Palmer.

The Mormon cricket (scientific name Anabrus simplex Haldeman) is a large, flightless and notably unattractive bug that looks something like a grasshopper. It is actually a species of shieldback katydid.

Although the crickets don't have wings, they move together in dense waves, spreading across fields. "They creep along the ground and devour the forage," Palmer said.

"They kind of congregate and start migrating, and that's when people see them. When they start crossing the road or crossing your field, they come in these huge bands."

Palmer recalls wading into a swarm of crickets that he estimates was 50 yards long and 25 yards across. All of the creatures were moving in the same direction. The big bugs can crowd together at 100 per square yard.