
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 7, 1990                   TAG: 9004070114
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RENO, NEV.                                LENGTH: Medium

INVASION OF MOUSE-SIZE CRICKETS BUGS NEVADA

The state of Nevada is going to war. The enemy: millions of crickets that will eat almost anything, can grow as big as a mouse and have invaded Nevada in the worst infestation since the 1930s.

"They're in the canyons right now and our goal is to kill them before they reach the valleys and the towns where they can do some real damage," Robert Gronowski, director of the Nevada Department of Agriculture's plant industry program, said Friday.

The insects, known as Mormon crickets, are hatching across 700,000 acres in five rural counties. The worst infestation of the brown juice-spitting pests is near Winnemucca, 150 miles northeast of Reno, where 100 crickets have been counted per square foot.

Once on the march, the crickets will leave barren land in their wake, even eating the bark off trees and devouring each other if food is scarce. They can reach the size of a small mouse, some 2 inches long, and will bite people if disturbed.

"Once they start marching it becomes much tougher to stop them," Gronowski said. "But right now they're still young and aren't really on the move so we've got an opportunity to do something to control them."

Mormon crickets got their name from an infestation in Utah in the 1800s that ended when sea gulls from Salt Lake City reportedly flew over the land and ate the insects.

The battle plan worked out by state and U.S. agriculture officials includes spreading a poison-laced bran and oil mixture on egg beds at the mouths of canyons where the insects are hatching.

Beginning May 1, when surviving crickets are expected to begin their hungry march across the sagebrush and cheat grass desert lands toward crops and home gardens, an additional crew will apply patches of the poisonous bait across areas where the crickets are traveling.

The insecticide isn't harmful to larger animals or people, Gronowski said. "Someone would have to eat a lot of it to even get sick."

Aerial spraying will begin April 23 in Lander County and other infested rural areas where there aren't any rivers to get polluted by the insecticide.

by CNB