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By Mark LaRocco
LOGAN -- Mormon crickets are attacking Utah crops again. This time it will take more than seagulls to control them. Mormon crickets could damage up to 8 million acres of Utah land this year, said Mike Pace, a Utah State University extension agent in Millard County. "The Mormon cricket infestation will be twice as bad as it was last year," said Jay B. Karren, entomologist and USU extension agent. According to the Web site http://ag.utah.gov/pressrel/crikhop8.html, in 2002 more than 3.3 million acres were infested with Mormon crickets and grasshoppers in many of the state's 29 counties. Due to the increase of Mormon crickets, the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) already went before the state government to request more funding to help out the farmers. In 2003, more than 5 million acres will be ruined, said a UDAF spokesperson. According to the state's official Web site, Governor Mike Leavitt added the insect infestation to a statewide disaster declaration on April 24, 2002. The Web site says Cache County will not be affected by Mormon crickets as much as other counties in Utah. It also says that some of the most affected areas include Millard, Tooele, Juab, and Beaver counties. "You're probably not going to see any in Cache Valley," Pace said. But Jay Karren, who is also a member of the Governor's Mormon Cricket and Grasshopper Decision and Action Committee, said there is a small part of Cache Valley that is often affected by Mormon crickets. "It could be in the Clarkston area," Karren said. "It has at times been there." Although some regions of Utah are more plagued than others, Pace said damages to a few counties ultimately affect the whole state. UDAF testified before the Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Subcommittee that "funding for control in 2003 will require an estimated $350,000." Greg Abbott, domestic program coordinator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, explained the problem during an April 9 broadcast of Access Utah on KUSU. "What causes these problems is an increase in these populations -- it seems to be a combination of environmental conditions and weather conditions that cause these populations to increase from year to year to a point where the population is actually dense enough to stimulate some sort of migratory tendency," Abbott said. He said when large swarms of Mormon crickets migrate, the real problems begin. "They start to migrate off the mountains where they [live] naturally, come down into the valleys where we have our pastures, hayfields, cornfields, wheatfields, homes, and come into contact with people in vast numbers," Abbott said. Despite many recent studies on Mormon cricket populations, Abbott said agricultural scientists "really don't know a whole lot about them." Some believe that there is a genetic link to their migratory tendency, Abbott said. He pointed to evidence that suggests that their mass migrations seem to coincide with drought cycles. "The last huge infestation that we had in Nevada, Utah and all over the West was back in the Thirties and Forties, which pretty much coincided with the Dust Bowl years," Abbott said. Abbott also said the recent spate of droughts may be why Utah has seen an increase in the populations lately. Karren, Abbott and Pace agreed that the population merely needs to be reduced, not eliminated. "We are trying to reduce their populations in areas where they are a threat to agricultural production," Karren said. Abbott explained that there are two effective treatments for controlling Mormon crickets. For both types, it is better to douse them at earlier instars, Karren said. An instar is a stage in the life of an insecT between two successive molts. Mormon crickets pass through six to seven instars, Abbott said. Karren said the Mormon cricket egg hatches during the first instar. The second instar features the Mormon cricket's first shedding of the skin. He said this is the best time to coat them with a grain-, oat- or wheat-based product with 2 to 5 percent carbaryl, a chemical insecticide. "[During this stage] they stay in eggbed areas, and stay close to where they hatched," Karren said. He said there are two main reasons to get them while they are young: first, they do not move as much -- in their third and fourth instars, they travel over a half mile per day. Second, the smaller the Mormon crickets are, the more effective the chemicals are. The bait has other advantages, Abbott said. "We spread it 10 pounds per acre, it's quite thinly placed," Abbott said. "So, it's logistically impossible for a bird or a small mammal to encounter enough of that stuff to cause any behavioral anomalies or mortalities." Abbott said baiting started on April 8. The other popular pesticide is called Demolin, Abbott said. A growth-inhibiting spray that keeps Mormon crickets' exoskeletons from forming properly, Demolin is so powerful it only requires one ounce per acre (spread by airplane) and yet "does not adversely affect bees, flies, beetles, et cetera," Abbott said. He also said Demolin is much costlier and harder to spread. "The U.S. Forest Service at the national level has a moratorium right now on aerial applications of anything on national forest lands," Abbott said, "so, on national forest land we can apply the bait only." But Demolin can still be used on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) lands, state lands, and tribal lands with permission, Abbott said. Pace gave some reasons that it is much harder to control the crickets on federal lands. "In order to spray and bait federal lands, they have to have environmental studies done," Pace said. He said an environmental study is not a one-day process; it takes months to look at what effect certain chemicals will have on certain species of animals. Also, environmental surveys are expensive. "It costs probably from $25,000 to $100,000 to do studies," Pace said. Both Pace and Karren said that private land is being regulated and treated much better than public land. And when Mormon cricket eggs grow and hatch in undisturbed public land, they eventually make their way to private ground, where farmers and other citizens bear the burden of controlling them, Pace said. The damage costs exceed hundreds of thousands of dollars, Pace said. And last year's land ruined equaled six acres; this year eight acres are expected to be damaged. Pace said when Mormon crickets grow too large, many birds stay away from them. "Sage grouse and other game birds will eat Mormon crickets when they are young," Pace said. "When they get big they are ugly and gross." But Abbott says he believes the Mormon cricket explosion is beneficial for animals. "Gulls, turkeys, Brewers blackbirds, coyotes, foxes, ground squirrels; many animals benefit from these infestations," Abbott said. "In areas where they are not adversely impacting agricultural or human habitations, we like to see them [Mormon crickets] there." Pace also thinks it will affect people's social activities. "With kids, [families] aren't going to go out and have a leisurely picnic, especially if people are traumatized," Pace said. Patty Welch, a USU student graduating in public relations, said she saw a news story about Mormon crickets. "[The news anchors] were talking about how pesticide is needed for controlling them, and [the Mormon crickets] were hopping on it," Welch said, "but then they showed it and they were hopping on the snow." "Damn crickets," said Sarah Timms, a junior majoring in public relations. "They really creep me out."
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