Millions of crickets have been visiting a small town in the United States over the past two weeks, suffering from a huge invasion by a swarm of crickets that some define as having biblical proportions.
Due to the huge number of Mormon crickets that visit Elko in Nevada, home to about 8,20 people, they have become a real dangerous hazard because when they are killed by cars on the roads, their remnants become a kind of pulp of crushed crickets, while the rainstorms that hit the area make the road even smoother than usual.
To try to prevent traffic accidents, the Nevada Department of Transportation began clearing the sticky pulp using special heavy tools. If that wasn't enough, the crickets unharmed by the cars began eating all kinds of plants in the town and the crops in its vicinity.
Found on every corner - even in homes: the crickets in Elko
Bug swarm: Nevada crawling with thick carpet of Mormon crickets. Millions of flightless insects known as Mormon crickets have descended across Nevada, alarming residents, blanketing roadways and buildings, and fueling nightmares. 🦗 pic.twitter.com/40MRVZNwZq
— The All American (@uma_johnny) June 17, 2023
In videos and photos posted on social media by the townspeople, you can see the rather large insects covering pavements, walls, garbage cans – and pretty much everything is possible there. The situation became so bad that the local hospital deployed leaf blowers and brooms at all entrances to evacuate the crickets marching nearby.
However, it is important to note that these crickets are not considered dangerous to humans in any way, but only intensify people's fears about them.
Masses of crickets on the road around Elko:
Mormon, crickets invading Elko , Nevada pic.twitter.com/wsH7pwBqtV
— CarolynTheEvangelist™️ ✟ (@ViscontiCarolyn) June 13, 2023
And what led to this huge eruption? The reason, apparently, is a drought that has occurred in the region. The population of this insect is growing so much that it reaches such a large number of items that they do not have enough food in the fields, when the drought that struck the area did not contribute to the situation. Due to the scarcity of food, swarms of crickets, as well as other species of crickets, began to move in the millions, and sometimes in swarms of tens of millions, in order to find other sources of food.
So what can Elko residents do to combat this huge swarm? Well, to their great regret, the answer is very simple – nothing. This is a phenomenon that appears once every few years, and past cases have shown that there is no good way to fight them, except to wait for them to be eliminated, either by predators or by vehicles to hit them – or wait for them to move elsewhere.
WATCH: Millions Of Crickets Plague Nevada
Mormon crickets covered streets, plants and buildings in cities like Elko, Nevada, with authorities at the Department of Agriculture warning it could be part of a 4-6 year cycle.
The bugs could "contribute to soil erosion, poor water... pic.twitter.com/ts7qu9Os6J
— I am @sheeplovelies (@Imsheeplovelies) June 13, 2023
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