Mormon Cricket Chaos is back in Nevada, with authorities saying there were multiple crashes on interstate highways over the weekend.
The pesky creatures resemble fat grasshoppers and are known to appear in parts of the western United States in massive swarms that can completely cover the sides of buildings and sections of roads.
While Mormon cricket populations have declined in most of Nevada in recent years, two counties — Eureka and Elko — remain at record highs, according to the Nevada Department of Agriculture. In Eureka County, Mormon crickets have infested highways so much that they caused several accidents on Saturday.
“ECSO, Eureka County Fire, Eureka County EMS, Carlin Fire and NSP had a busy morning responding to multiple crashes on the interstate due to rain and Mormon Cricket mud,” the Eureka County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post, including several images of a car and large trailer that had run off the road and overturned, and urging people to drive with caution.
Mormon crickets can pose a serious driving hazard when crushed, leaving a foul-smelling “sludge” that can make roads “extremely slippery and with unpredictable stopping distances,” the sheriff's office said, a situation made even more dangerous by rainy weather.
According to a fact sheet released by the Nevada Department of Agriculture, Mormon cricket infestations tend to occur in the spring when eggs laid the previous summer begin to hatch. How large a swarm will be in any given year is hard to predict because it depends on a variety of environmental factors, including temperature and late-season snowfall, officials said.
Whether or not they are crushed, Mormon crickets are a concern because in large numbers they pose a danger to drivers and can damage crops. In April, the state of Nevada announced it had submitted a proposal to the USDA to carry out large-scale soil treatments in certain areas of Nevada to eradicate the Mormon crickets.
Nevada Department of Transportation
Nevada has been plagued by an on-and-off infestation of Mormon crickets since 2006, when the insects invaded 10 million acres of land in the state, CBS affiliate KLAS reported.
