Mormon Crickets Take Over Idaho Town
Is it bad we're slightly happy it's not Bogus Basin Road getting the swarm this year?
Poor Murphy, Idaho. They drew the short straw and are one of the first Idaho towns to get a visit from the summer insect that gives everyone the hebejebes. KTVB happened to be in town working on another story when they noticed the migrating insects swarming a courthouse building. There are so many, that people working in that building are trying everything they can to get into their office without the insects touching them. Some of the methods they're using? Rainboots. Brooms. Umbrellas. They've never had so many of the migrating insect in Murphy before.
We feel for Murphy! Bogus Basin Road got hit with them pretty badly around the 4th of July in 2017. I remember gagging when I saw the video of the swarm and kept my fingers crossed that they'd be gone by the time my friends and I were running the Freakin' Fast Half down Bogus a few weeks later.
Not only are the crickets gross, they have a tendency to cover an entire section of a roadway or sidewalk as a time. As they get run over by cars or stepped on, their dead bodies can actually make roadways as slippery as they are during winter months. If you should come across a Mormon Cricket swarm anywhere in the Gem State, ITD says you should approach it as you if you were approaching on icy road. They also say you should try to stay focused on the task of driving rather than there being yucky bugs all over your car.