Page 28 - aruba-today-20170715

A28 SCIENCE
Saturday 15 July 2017

Insect attack! U.S. West is battling crop-killing swarms

By REBECCA BOONE “Most people don’t know said he hoped last winter’s
Associated Press they are coming” until their huge snowstorms would
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Farm- car is almost on top of the naturally limit their numbers.
ers in the U.S. West face swarm, he said. Female crickets can lay up
a creepy scourge every Drivers who see pavement to 100 eggs each summer,
eight years or so: Swarms that looks like it is moving which hatch the following
of ravenous insects that should slow down and drive spring.
can decimate crops and as if they are on icy roads, As it turns out, the deep
cause slippery, bug-slick he said. Police work with snow cover helped insulate
car crashes as they march transportation officials to and protect the eggs, he
across highways and roads. post warnings and, if nec- said. The department has
Experts say this year could essary, sand roads fouled received more than 100
be a banner one for Mor- by cricket carcasses. complaints about infesta-
mon crickets — 3-inch-long Lloyd Knight, a division ad- tions this year, but that’s still
bugs named after the Mor- ministrator with the Idaho within expected norms for
mon pioneers who moved Department of Agriculture, the region, Knight said.q
West and learned firsthand
the insect’s devastating ef-
fect on forage and grain
fields. The U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Animal
Plant Health Inspection Ser-
vice reports “significantly
higher Mormon cricket
populations” on federal
land in southwestern Ida-
ho, agency spokeswoman In this June 12, 2003, file photo, a Mormon cricket feasts on a
Abbey Powell wrote in an dead cricket killed by a car on a rural road north of Reno, Nev.
email to The Associated Associated Press
Press. “There isn’t a clear across southwestern Ida- counties in Idaho and Ne-
explanation why popula- ho, concentrated around vada were forced to de-
tions are so much higher Winnemucca, Nevada; clare states of emergency
this year,” Powell wrote. and sprinkled throughout because of cricket-caused
“We know that populations Oregon, Washington, Mon- damage. Estimates of crop
are cyclical. ... In Idaho, in tana, Wyoming, Arizona damage in Utah reached
a few locations, we have and Colorado. more than $25 million in
seen populations as high as Residents in the north-cen- 2001. Police and transpor-
70 per square yard.” tral Oregon town of Arling- tation workers also keep an
The bugs can start to be ton started dealing with eye on invasions. The bugs
detrimental to rangeland Mormon crickets in June, are juicy when squished,
and crops when they num- scrambling to protect gar- and when swarms cross the
ber about 8 per square dens and farm crops and road, they can make the
yard, state officials said. trying to keep the bugs from pavement as slick as ice.
The federal agency says invading homes through Idaho State Police Lt. Col.
the bugs— actually ka- open windows and doors. Sheldon Kelley has re-
tydids, an entomological Out-of-control swarms can sponded to wrecks and
cousin to grasshoppers — mean big economic losses slide-offs caused by the
are stretched in a band for states. In 2003, some bug slicks.