Mormon cricket ‘sludge’ blamed for crashes in northern Nevada

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The guts of runover Mormon crickets and rain are a treacherous combination. Over the weekend, officials said the slick “sludge” caused several crashes in northern Nevada.

Eureka County Sheriff Jesse Watts said that anytime the summertime insect hordes are on the wet roads, it creates a hazard for drivers.

“You have to be extremely careful,” Watts said, noting that Mormon cricket sludge was the cause of a fatal crash in 2022.

‘Worst I have ever seen it’: Mormon crickets march on northern Nevada town

The crickets, which are technically not crickets but shield-back katydids, are a summer phenomenon along the rangelands of northern Nevada and Utah.

Under certain conditions, they band together in large groups, moving over the landscape, sometimes damaging farm crops.

The Nevada Department of Agriculture said last month that a proposal was submitted to federal agencies for aerial treatment over more than 222,000 acres of the state. The department encouraged Nevada residents to report Mormon cricket sightings.

In recent years, relatively large Mormon cricket hordes have marched in areas around Eureka and Elko.

Earlier this month in Spring Creek, a town about 10 miles southeast of Elko, Kelsey Merchant told ABC4 that this year’s cricket invasion was the worst she’d seen since moving to Spring Creek six years ago.

Merchant, the owner of a flower shop, said the bugs were not good for her business.

“A flower shop has a certain aesthetic that doesn’t involve crickets being all over the building, jumping everywhere,” she said.

Gary Doherty, another Spring Creek resident, told ABC4 that when the bugs are run over, more of the crickets flock to the area to feed on the crushed remains.

“They are cannibalistic…they eat their dead,” he said. “That is why you see them on the roads so thick.”

Mormon crickets got their nickname from the settlers and pioneers who encountered the roughly 2-inch long, dark-colored insects while traveling through Utah.

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