Cricket overload

VERNON, Tooele County — Natives of western Utah: Shut your windows and lock your doors. Hordes of unwanted visitors are on their way.

Those pesky Mormon crickets and grasshoppers are back.

Elizabeth Mitchell, a rancher who owns land just outside of Vernon, said it's too late to stop the crickets that munch on her newly planted seed. Hundreds of crickets and grasshoppers are just starting to march into Mitchell's land.

"There is another huge wave (of crickets) just west of my place, and it's working its way towards my field," Mitchell said. "They are on the march here. We're in the thick of it."

Mitchell said she lost nearly $5,000 two years ago as a result of the cricket-and-grasshopper invasion. At the Bennion Ranch, about seven miles south of Vernon, Mitchell keeps about 100 mother cows on rangeland.

Baiting and spray products are readily available at the Bennion Ranch. But no matter how much she prepares and fights, the crickets and grasshoppers keep coming back. Mitchell's property borders Forest Service land, a place she calls a "nursery for crickets."

The state has more funding this year to fight off the pesky crickets and grasshoppers. But it is unclear whether the extra dollars will really help.

Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, secured $7.6 million in the past year to fight grasshoppers and crickets in Utah. That's up from just $650,000 the previous year.

Experts say it's too early to know if the extra funding will do any good.

"It's hard to say, with that much land," said Matt Palmer, a Utah State University Extension agent who covers Tooele County. "We're talking huge vast areas."

Mormon crickets and grasshoppers infested 3.5 million acres of western Utah rangeland, farms and desert last year.

This year the outlook is even worse. Larry Lewis, spokesman for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, said he estimates grasshoppers and crickets will take over nearly 4 million acres of land this summer.

Karen Lovell, a city clerk in Oak City, Millard County, said she can't imagine the cricket season being any worse than last year.

"It was horrible," Lovell said. "They had them going in people's houses, going in the doors when you came out. Kids didn't want to go out and play."

Lewis blamed drought conditions, including a mild spring and warm temperatures, for the possible influx of crickets this year. Year by year, as the drought continues, crickets and grasshoppers have generally increased in number.

If you thought Mormon crickets were bad, the grasshoppers are even worse, Lewis said. They stick around longer and eat more valuable crops than the crickets do.