Bug Invasion Predicted For Spring
BY IRENE HSIAO SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE February 23, 2002
Cover your crops. Utah's cricket and grasshopper spring invasion could be just as bad or worse than last year.
Expect Mormon crickets to descend upon the Beehive State in mid-March; grasshoppers will follow in April, said Edward Bianco, entomologist for the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.
A relatively mild winter has left more insect eggs ready to hatch in the spring. The insect infestation in 2001 was the worst case since the 1940s and caused $25 million in economic loss. Crickets damaged about 2 million acres while grasshoppers hit about 1 million acres, said Greg Abbott, plant protection and quarantine officer for the Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.
This year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Utah is armed with $500,000 for combating the insects.
"We expect a lot of crickets in a lot of places, and we expect a lot of grasshoppers in some places," Abbott said.
While the grasshopper population could decrease if the weather fluctuates from warm to cold, crickets are more resilient through temperature changes.
"It just doesn't phase them," Abbott said. "They are just tough."
Federal lands in Tooele, Millard and Juab counties will be treated for Mormon crickets with the environmentally safe carbaryl bran bait -- a selective insecticide that is harmful only when ingested, Abbott said. The bait is the same as Sevin, which is used to keep down insect pests in homes and gardens.
"Our objective is to protect range plants, wildlife and livestock forage as well as to protect adjacent crop lands that may be in close proximity to those federal lands where these crickets originate," Abbott said.
The program, however, has its critics. The Mormon cricket population is historically cyclical, said Denise Boggs, executive director of Utah Environmental Congress. Carbaryl is poisonous and is a carcinogenic, or causes cancer, in humans.
"They should just leave it alone and let it run its course," Boggs said. "It's irresponsible to claim that the carbyrl isn't going to do any harm."
Treatment to kill grasshoppers will be applied in Sanpete and Sevier counties.
"We will never get those insect populations to zero," Bianco said. "But we would like to get them down to a population so that we can live with them and not endure economic hardships."
