Mormon Cricket Stories

ski3pin

ski3pin

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Over the years Julie and I have had several encounters with masses of Mormon Crickets - Link

I mentioned mormon crickets in our last blog story. These creatures can be close to three inches in length.

Friends around the country read and send comments on our stories. One close friend I've known for over 50 years retired as a news videographer for a major Denver TV station. He sent me this account -

"In 1987 I was assigned to cover a Mormon Cricket migration. Myself and the chopper pilot flew to Dinosaur National Monument. It wasn’t difficult to find the nearly quarter mile long, and 10 foot wide dark red path of crickets even from 200 feet off the ground, it was crazy. After landing, I filmed the leaders of the pack, and down the trail of crickets behind them. To make the trip, not all will live. When one dies, others will devour it and continue on their way."

Do you have stories?



ApplegateNV-May2022-069-copy.jpg






ApplegateNV-May2022-138-copy.jpg
 
We got yer Jerusalem Crickets!


Jerusalem cricket

Eastern Washington

» Crickets, katydids and grasshoppers
» Eastern Washington insects
» Eastern Washington wildlife
» Eastern Washington animals and plants

Related information
Jerusalem crickets
Family Stenopelmatidae - Jerusalem Crickets - BugGuide
Potato Bug - What's that Bug?
Related Books
National Audubon Society Field Guide to Insects and Spiders
Field Guide To Grasshoppers, Katydids, And Crickets
ir



jerusalem-cricket2.jpg

Jerusalem cricket
Jerusalem crickets or sand crickets were once thought rare because people don't see them often-- but they're actually common, just hidden most of the time. They live underground, digging around and eating plant roots and whatever other living or dead things they find. They may come to the surface and move about at night, or during the day in cold, wet weather.
These crickets are not agricultural pests, do not sting and are not venomous, though they can give a good bite if handled. They will eat meat if they can find it, including other bugs dead or alive-- and the female is even known to devour the male alive after mating, thus nourishing the offspring of both and giving real meaning to the term, "you are what you eat."
Long-horned crickets such as Jerusalem crickets may be parasitized by larvae of the very large green cricket hunter wasp, and they are regularly eaten by pallid bats, which hunt them on the ground.

jerusalem-cricket3.jpg

Jerusalem cricket crossing a sandy road
jerusalem-cricket.jpg
 
craig333 said:
I'm just wondering why we don't have muslim crickets and christian crickets?
Click to expand...
Well Craig, all I can answer is why these are mormon crickets -


"When the Mormons planted their first crops after they settled in Utah, another cricket migration came. They were eating everything in their path, until the saviors, the seagulls came and devoured the crickets. Brigham Young and the rest of the Mormons were spared from starvation. This is why the Utah State Bird is the seagull."

From my buddy with the news camera.
 
Yup, we have the Jerusalem Crickets around here - I loved seeing them when I was a kid - and know their reclusive ways.
 
The're back... Mormon Crickets are making their migration across Eastern Nevada.
https://www.google.com/search?q=elko+mormon+crickets+2023&rlz=1C1KDEC_enUS825US825&oq=elko+morman+crickets&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0i13i131i433i512l2j0i8i13i30j0i390i650l4.10086j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#ip=1

J6HQEJZMFRDIHG7QLWSZDOOVEQ.jpg





Mormon crickets have invaded the town of Elko, Nevada(The Nevada Department of Transportation)


By Kevin Sheridan

Published: Jun. 15, 2023 at 10:01 AM PDT









ELKO, Nev. (KOLO) - Residents of the town of Elko are dealing with a swarm of Mormon crickets that have descended onto their town.
Pictures and videos of the crickets covering roads and people’s houses have flooded social media, creating problems for people in the town of 54,000.
The crickets have become so numerous that the Nevada Department of Transportation has taken to plowing and sanding Elko-area highways for drivers to get better traction after the insects sprawled themselves across the roads.
NDOT has placed signs on area highways as a reminder to slow down, as the crickets are making for potentially slick driving.

Copyright 2023 KOLO. All rights reserved.
 
My wife and I spent 5 days last week out in the far SE corner of OR along the NV border, mostly centered around McDermitt. As we were approaching the area from the north on Hwy 95 we were hitting some periodic thunderstorms. Came around a gentle curve about 20 miles north of McDermitt and just about lost it as we hit a intense concentration of smooshed crickets lubricated with a major downpour that had just occurred. Pretty scary at the time, seemed actually worse than ice as the hydroplaning was severe. We lived with the critters for the most part for the next few days. They would crawl up into the sagebrush at night then resume their wanderings in the morning when the sun came out.
Fortunately the gruesome brown slime that coated the lower portion of our rig was finally cleansed by a number of creek crossings and a big rain near the Steens as we headed for home.
 
CraggyMan said:
My wife and I spent 5 days last week out in the far SE corner of OR along the NV border, mostly centered around McDermitt. As we were approaching the area from the north on Hwy 95 we were hitting some periodic thunderstorms. Came around a gentle curve about 20 miles north of McDermitt and just about lost it as we hit a intense concentration of smooshed crickets lubricated with a major downpour that had just occurred. Pretty scary at the time, seemed actually worse than ice as the hydroplaning was severe. We lived with the critters for the most part for the next few days. They would crawl up into the sagebrush at night then resume their wanderings in the morning when the sun came out.
Fortunately the gruesome brown slime that coated the lower portion of our rig was finally cleansed by a number of creek crossings and a big rain near the Steens as we headed for home.
Click to expand...
EEK! Not fun, I’m glad you’re both OK!
 
I was at the Idaho/Nevada border a few weeks ago and the Idaho Transportation Dept was using a snowplow to scrap them off the highway! Sparks, burnt crickets and a really bad smell.
 
I don’t remember, or maybe didn’t know if they were Mormon, Jerusalem or non denominational crickets, but back in the 70’s we had a mass invasion in Central Oregon. My Grandfather had to hire a spray plane twice to beat them back from the alfalfa.
 
We just returned home from a trip to the Rockies on June 25. When planning our return route across Nevada, we chose HWY 5 over I-80 based on the article posted by pvstoy earlier in this thread. Elko is on I-80. We don't want to deal with the crickets. Thus, we took HWY 50. Well, they are on HWY 50 as well. Not to yje extent of the photos in the article, so we made the right choice. But bad enough that we slowed down on some corners just in case the road was slickened by the number of squished ones. Mostly between Ely and a bit west of Austin, as I recall.
 
Yuck wouldn't want to be on a road full of them.
One year on a trip to the Sierras we were just out of Merced
and came across a area of road filled with Tarantulas migrating
from one side to the other.
Lots of them couldn't miss them but it was only a very short distance.

Frank
 
We encountered many tarantulas coming out of the Carizzo Plain on our way out to SLO one year. My understanding is that they were not migrating - just sex-crazed males. We did try to miss them, yelling party on, dudes. Fortunately, their number were nothing like the crickets.
 
Early one recent morning we visited the Canyon Visitors Center at Dinosaur National Monument. When the kind gentleman asked, "How can I help you?" I asked, "Is it better to try and get the cricket guts off when they are still wet or let them dry?" He said letting them dry was best. Today we find out.
 
We live north of Reno in Palomino Valley. Last year during the cricket invasion they were one ridgeline away from us and Pyramid Hwy was slick with guts. Looks like we won't be so lucky this year. During our walk this morning we came over a rise on the road to our home and the road was covered with Mormon crickets, maybe 300 meters from our house.

Walking through them was kinda creepy. They definitely try to get away but were jumping randomly and would occasionally crash into my legs. My wife was really freaked out. We stepped on many of them but there are literally millions. Hope they stay away from our house.
 
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