Mormon crickets are once again causing havoc in Nevada, where officials say they caused three crashes on an interstate highway over the weekend.
The bothersome animals resemble big grasshoppers and have been known to appear in enormous clusters in parts of the western United States, covering the side of a building or an entire piece of road.
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According to the Nevada Department of Agriculture, Mormon cricket numbers have fallen in most parts of Nevada in recent years, but they have remained approximately as large as they have ever been in two counties, Eureka and Elko. In Eureka, there were so many Mormon crickets on the highway that they caused multiple accidents on Saturday.
“ECSO, Eureka County Fire, Eureka County EMS, Carlin Fire, and NSP have had a busy morning responding to multiple crashes on the Interstate due to rain and Mormon Cricket sludge,” the Eureka County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post, which urged people to drive with caution and included several images of a car and a semitruck that overturned after running off the road.
Crushed Mormon crickets produce a foul-smelling “sludge” that can make roadways “extremely slick and unpredictable for stopping distance,” according to the sheriff’s office. The rain made the situation even more perilous.
Mormon cricket invasions often occur in the spring, when eggs placed the previous summer begin to hatch, according to a brochure released by Nevada’s agriculture department. Officials find it challenging to predict the size of the swarm in any given year due to a variety of environmental factors, including temperatures and late-season snowfall.
Whether crushed or not, huge populations of Mormon crickets are a worry because they can ruin crops and endanger cars. In April, the state announced that it had filed a proposal with the United States Department of Agriculture to eliminate large-scale ground treatment in certain areas of Nevada.
CBS affiliate KLAS reports that intermittent infestations of Mormon crickets have plagued 10 million acres of Nevada property since 2006.
