Mormon crickets take over Holden and Fillmore area
KSL, THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, CNN
By Alex Cabrero
Click here for updates on this story
HOLDEN, Utah (KSL, KSL-TV) — Imagine driving down the road and hearing what sounds like a bowl of popcorn under your tires. Except it’s not popcorn.
It’s bugs. Thousands of them.
In the small town of Holden, in Millard County, spring has officially arrived — and so have the Mormon crickets.
“They’re just gross. They’re very noisy,” said Holden resident Bobbette White, whose voice practically carries a shiver when she talks about the six-legged invaders.
These aren’t your peaceful chirpers. These are Mormon crickets, the flightless, oversized insects that crawl in swarms so thick that they make the pavement look like it’s moving.
You can hear the crunch as cars drive over them.
“Well, it seems like for the last couple of weeks they just have come out from the back fields, and they just get on the freeway,” White said.
So far, they haven’t hit White’s house. But she knows what it looks like when they do.
“I have neighbor friends who have pictures of them on their houses, on the sides of the wall,” she said. “They just devour people’s gardens and lawns. They’re just very destructive.”
Mormon crickets aren’t actually crickets at all; they’re shield-backed katydids.
But names don’t matter much when they’re covering roads, fields and homes.
Some in town are even joking about bringing in the reinforcements, like the old stories of what pioneers once did.
“So, it’s kind of a joke to have the seagulls come and save us,” White laughed, referencing the famous legend of seagulls eating crickets to save the early Utah pioneer settlers’ crops.
Until that miracle repeats itself, residents in Holden and nearby Fillmore, which is also seeing heavy cricket activity near freeway overpasses, are stuck dealing with it.
“Can’t stand to be with them!” White said with a laugh.
Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.
