Mormon Crickets

Did you know that Mormon Crickets are still around? Here's a close up.
They are red, about 2-4 inches long, and make high pitched clicking noises. They don't sound like regular crickets. Joseph can't hear them, their pitch is too high. We have them here but only in certain areas. Yesterday Joseph came to tell us there was a horde of them passing through one of the north pivots. By the time we got there only the stragglers remained. All the specks in the road are crickets that were crushed by the gravel truck Joseph was driving.

One has to be careful on the highway going into town. Some spots are so covered in dead crickets the road is actually slick. Gross huh? We have figured there are about four ways to kill the crickets: stamping on them, driving over them, baiting them (Bait is spread around the perimeter of the fields. The bait kills the crickets when they eat them) and Ammon's favorite - shooting them one by one.

Mormon crickets are a yearly occurance around here that folks have learned to deal with. An interesting note is we have tons of birds around here - blackbirds, crows, finches, wrens, etc. but have not once seen a bird eat a cricket. Anyone know why?

One of the mothers that brings her girls when the bookmobile comes told this story about her 4 year old daughter. E saw the crickets in her yard one morning and got really mad at them. She ran out the door, started stamping on them, and yelled "Kill the Mormons! Kill the Mormons!" That brought a good laugh!