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The Mormon Crickets are at it again! Where are the seagulls?

The ongoing battle against hordes of Mormon crickets is continuing in Juab County this year. Actually, it is continuing throughout the west this year and Juab County is just one of the victims.

The crickets, which are actually katydids, are insects with voracious appetites that are eating their way through crops, flowers, and anything green. They have reached plague-like levels around the West due to this year's warm winter, an early spring and years of drought.

They will eat anything--sagebrush, alfalfa, wheat, barley, clover, seeds, grasses, vegetables and each other.

"At a density of one cricket per square yard, they can consume 38 pounds of forage per acre as they pass through an area," said Loyal Clark, a spokeswoman for the Uinta National Forest.

The widespread infestation is particularly epidemic in Utah, Nevada and Idaho.

In fact, Utah agriculture officials estimate 6 million acres will be infested this year before the critters die. That figure is more than double last year's cricket population.

"It's pretty much everything from central Utah on down," said Clark.

In Eureka, Juab County, the crickets swarm by the hundreds on roads, farms, and local homes. After tires run over the creatures, a brown, gooey juice makes roads slick.

Mature Mormon Crickets are big with some more than two-inches long

The Eureka area has tons of the crawly, aggressive crickets again this year.

"All down through Richfield and Fillmore, in that geographic area, reports are that is what is being hit the most."

Experts are fearing this year's infestation could be the worst in decades.

An estimated 5 million acres are infested in Nevada. Officials in southwestern Idaho say the infestation there is the worst since World War II.

Near Eureka in Utah County, Elberta and Goshen, residents are having similar problems.

Crickets are, currently, moving at a mile a day, and the expectations are that at least $25 million in total crop loss will occur as a result.

The Mormon cricket doesn't fly but can hop and crawl a mile in a day and up to 50 miles in a season. Before they die in the fall, they lay the eggs

that will become next year's swarm.

Some farmers think the state agriculture department, claiming that the problem should have tried killing the eggs laid during last year's epidemic which may have been more effective than attacking the mature crickets, .

However, the state agriculture departments counters that they are working hard to keep the insects in control and have more crew on the ground this year than in the past and are spending more this year than is past.

The crickets are an old problem in the west. In fact, the crickets are named after an 1848 infestation that attacked the fields of Mormon settlers. In that infestation thousands of seagulls arrived on the scene to eat the crickets and eliminate the problem.

Thousands of seagulls have come to aid in the current infestation BUT there are just too many crickets.

The chief weapon being used by farmers and the state department of agriculture is carbaryl, an insecticide commonly known as Sevin, said Clark.

"The poison is mixed with bran and spread before the crickets as they

advance," said Clark. "The crickets eat the bait and die."

The result is that the poisoned carcasses of the dead are eaten by other crickets which then die as well.