I’m going to Denver in a couple of weeks. I’ll be staying in the city so will I have to worry about these little critters?
I’m also going to Santa Fe in August. Will I run into any problems there.
I would assume that as long as I’m in the city or in the desert, I shouldn’t run into troubles, but these bugs give me something beyond what can be called the willies.
Mormon?
'splain.
Apparently, it’s a species of cricket. Prolific little buggers. Linky.
New one on me, too.
Hey, I didn’t name them.
http://www.uidaho.edu/so-id/entomology/Grasshoppers_and_their_Relatives.htm
I wonder why they were named that, odd…
Where is it that the area is over run by crickets? I just saw something like that on the news…of course it was mindless news so I wasn’t really paying much attention.
Never mind, I just read Q’s link. lol.
(((shudder))
They were namd Mormon crickets because when the Mormons first came to Utah, their crops were destroyed by a horde of them. According to the story, the Mormons all prayed to God that their food would be spared, and God sent Seagulls as an answer. Soon, the Seagulls ate all the crickets, the crops were spared, and the Mormons were able to last another year.
Which is why the California Seagul is the Utah State Bird.
This is all well and good, but my I need someone to address my OP and tell me whether or not I should have what is described in the DSM-IV as “the heebie-jeebies”.
You will probably have heebie jeebies …
what would the diagnosis? 300.4?
The current infestation is apparently confined to Utah, Nevada and portions of Southern Idaho. I have never seen a Mormon Cricket in Denver, and have certainly not seen recently. As for Santa Fe, it is well out of the Great Basin reagion that is their home, so you should be safe there as well.
Thanks. I have a hard time just watching stories about this on the news.
That’s also why there’s a huge statue of a seagull in Salt Lake City. Wonder what the pigeons think of it?
Funny coincidence, I just took my family down to the Little Sahara in central Utah. While driving through Eureka on Highway 6, we saw a number of Mormon crickets, both hopping about in the roadside brush and across the road. Made for some interesting roadkill.
They are called Mormon crickets because they all wear white shirts and ties and have little black name tags. <rim shot>
Seriously, though, we were talking to the Ranger at the Visitor Center at the Little Sahara, and she told us she had been dealing with the crickets a great deal this year. They had stripped her yard bare, eating all the needles off the pine trees and draining the water pond in her garden. She said she was able to poison them, but they were so thick she had to haul them off to the land fill by the wheelbarrow. Not a story the kids will forget anytime soon. She also informed us that a local resident was skilled at twisting off their heads, leaving only the body behind. I though that might make a nice business opportunity for e-bay. Let me know how many of you dopers want one!
The Little Sahara was great, though. And lots of great geology in the Tintic mountaains there for those of my fellow dopers who are rock hounds. Drop by if you get a chance.
There was a big infestation of them around here last year, too. While driving up into the mountains, in the foothills along the way there was about a two-mile stretch where the highway and the concrete barrier along the side was densely covered with Mormon crickets. There were warning signs to tell people to slow down because of the slick conditions created by all the bug guts on the road. There were even people who had stopped to collect the crickets for use as free fishing bait.
Crap.
I haven’t seen any at all in Salt Lake. If I get any in my garden my garter snakes weill take care of them. I hope.