Last June, farmers and government officials across Nevada northeast to Montana battled the insects as they destroyed crops. Watch moment Taylor ingests insect on stage. 'Delicious' Breathe, Swifties! She just swallowed a bug. The Nevada Department of Agriculture did not immediately respond to USA TODAY Friday morning to say how many counties reported an infestation. "This is particularly true as adults and nymphs of Mormon crickets migrate in a band, eating plants along their paths." Mormon crickets prefer drought conditions and can cause "substantial economic losses to rangeland, cropland, and home gardens," according to the university. In mass quantities, their feeding contributes to soil erosion, poor water quality, nutrient depleted soils and other land damage. Adult Mormon crickets have long antennae and a shiny exoskeleton in a wide array of colors and patterns. The insects are not true crickets but are "shield-backed, short-winged katydids that resemble fat grasshoppers that cannot fly," according to the university. Mormon crickets are also cannibalistic and, if their bellies are not full, will eat one another dead or alive. They eat perennials, grass, shrubs and crops, subsequently reducing feed for grazing wildlife and livestock. What do Mormon Crickets eat?Īccording to the University of Nevada in Reno, Mormon crickets can grow larger than two inches and are found in rangelands west of the Missouri River and across all of Nevada. “They look like spiders, and they poop everywhere.”ĭeadliest animals What animal kills the most humans per year? Protect yourself from this unexpected predator. “They’re just gross,” Precious Drake of Elko, told the outlet. Native to western North America, the crickets' populations are cyclic over many years and some residents in the mini-metropolis of just over 20,000 people, are not pleased with their return. “Just to get patients into the hospital we had people out there with leaf blowers, with brooms, at one point we even had a tractor with a snowplow on it just to push the piles of crickets and move them on their way,” Steve Burrows, director of community relations at Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital, told local KSL TV. In Elko, a city in northeastern Nevada south of the Idaho border, crickets converged Monday, covering roads, vegetation, and even local hospital walls, multiple media outlets are reporting. Parts of Nevada are being overrun by an explosion of flightless, ground-dwelling cannibalistic insects creating nightmares of Biblical proportions.īusiness and residents said they are battling millions of Mormon crickets that descended on the state this week in an effort save land and morale.
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