Millions of Mormon Crickets Might Be Invading Your Space Soon

Idaho's Mormon crickets have reproduced and the babies are fully grown, and they are marching across Southwest Idaho by the millions.  One Idahoan captured some incredible video of their migration that will make your skin crawl.

Becky Parkinson shared videos on social media last month showing thousands of Mormon crickets moving across the Southwest Idaho desert and called them "a plague in the Owyhees."

One of the videos was shot near the Spencer Reservoir southwest of Kuna, and another was taken on the road between Oreana and Jordan Valley.

Mormon crickets emerge every year, but how many there are and how they travel is different every year.  The Department of Agriculture said the crickets traveled in groups in 2017, and they appear to be doing that again this year, according to the video.

The Idaho Statesman said the crickets go through cycles and some years the crickets will go relatively unnoticed, and then they are the years when we can't help but notice them because they're scaling buildings in swarms like something from the movies and crossing highways in groups of a thousand or more.  The crickets may cross the road to get to the other side, but when they encounter traffic they don't make it, and that can create slick roads and can even cause accidents.  Ew.

The Idaho Statesman also said, "they emerge first in Owyhees, where temperatures are warmer, and continue hatching into the summer at higher elevations."  And then they'll hope into army formation and be on the move, so look out.  We could have some in window sills and sneaking up our pant legs soon.

Our friends on the East Coast have been making chocolate-covered delicacies out of the millions of cicadas that are infiltrating that section of the country, and maybe entrepreneurs in Boise can get in on that opportunity too.  Boise Fry Company started offering four salt blends in 2020 that include pulverized crickets, so maybe they are delicious.  With millions of new crickets emerging now, it looks like they'll have plenty of cricket dust to crank out several more batches.