Jordan Maley, April Aamodt and April Aamodt were driving down a canyon road in the northern Oregon rangeland when they noticed large insects called Mormon crickets. These giant insects can destroy crops.
Aamodt states, “There’s one right there.”
It’s not difficult to find them. They can reach a height of up to 2 inches and blot asphalt.
Oregon is not the first place to find Mormon crickets. Their name is a result of their native to western North America. They were first known in the 1800s when they destroyed the fields of Mormon settlers. However, West-wide outbreaks have become more severe due to drought and warmer temperatures – conditions that are favored by insects.
Oregon’s legislature allocated $5 million last year to address the problem and establish a Mormon cricket- and grasshopper “suppression” program. The program received an additional $1.2 million earlier in the month.
This is part of a wider effort by federal and state authorities in the U.S. West, to combat an explosion of grasshoppers (and Mormon crickets) that has struck from Montana to Nevada. Some environmental groups are against the programs which use aerial pesticide spraying to control large areas of land.
Maley, an Oregon State University Extension agent, and Aamodt (a local resident in Arlington), are involved in Mormon cricket outreach efforts and surveying efforts.
Arlington experienced its biggest Mormon cricket epidemic since 1940s in 2017. The entrails of these huge insects were clogging roads, causing them to be “greasy”. This caused damage to nearby wheat crops.
Skye Krebs, Rancher, said that the outbreaks were “truly Biblical.”
He explained that “on the highways, once they are killed, the rest of them will come.” Mormon crickets cannibalistic, and will feast on one another, alive or dead, if they are not satisfied with protein.
These insects aren’t true crickets but shield-backed Katydids and are flightless. Maley says they can travel at most a quarter mile per day.
Aamodt used what she had to fight the 2017 epidemic.
She said, “I took out the lawnmower and started to mowing them and then killing them.” “I used a straight hoe to stab them.”
Aamodt organized volunteers to combat the infestation, earning the nickname “cricket queen”.
Maley stated that another infestation occurred last year, which left local officials “scrambling.”
He explained that “we had all those high value crops and irrigation circles.” “We had to do everything we could to stop them getting into that.”
Oregon agricultural officials have estimated that 10 million acres of rangeland across 18 Oregon counties will be destroyed by grasshoppers and Mormon Crickets in 2021.
The new Oregon initiative allows private landowners, such as farmers and ranchers, to request that the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), survey their land. ODA will recommend chemical treatment if it finds more than three Mormon crickets and eight grasshoppers per acre. There were 201 Mormon crickets in a square yard near Arlington, which was surveyed shortly after hatching.
Officials from the state recommend aerial application of diflubenzuron. The insecticide inhibits development and prevents nymphs growing into adults. The cost can be refunded up to 75% by landowners.
Diana Fillmore, a rancher, is participating in the cost-sharing initiative. She said that the ground was “just crawling with grasshoppers” at her property.
ODA advised her to treat her 988-acre ranch, Arock, in southeastern Oregon. The protocol for the program calls for spraying only half of the area to be treated, then alternately targeting different areas and skipping the next. This means that nearly 500 acres will be spray.
Fillmore took action, recalling the damage done last year.
Fillmore stated, “It was terrible.” Fillmore said that the grasshoppers had completely destroyed some of our fields. She had to spend $45,000 to purchase hay that she wouldn’t normally have to.
Todd Adams, ODA’s Eastern Oregon field officer and coordinator for the grasshopper program, is an entomologist. He said that ODA had received 122 surveys requests as well as 31 treatment recommendations.
Diflubenzuron is not effective against nymphs so landowners need to act fast.
Adams stated, “Once they are adults it’s too late.”
The new Oregon program targets private landowners. The federal government controls more than half of Oregon’s land and the U.S. Department of Agriculture runs its own program to control outbreaks on Western public land.
The U.S. government’s grasshopper control program dates back to 1930. Since 1980, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has spray millions of acres with pesticides in an effort to stop outbreaks.
William Wesela, APHIS National Policy Director, stated that the agency had sprayed 807,000 acres rangeland in seven Western states by 2021. According to Jake Bodart (the State Plant Health Director for Oregon), it has received treatment requests in Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Utah so far this year.
APHIS’s 2019 risk assessment found that diflubenzuron was still considered a restricted pesticide because of its toxic effects on aquatic invertebrates. However, it said the risks are low.
APHIS claims it uses methods to reduce concern. The label instructs pesticide application workers to use the label’s recommended rates of insecticide.
However, environmental groups are against the program. The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), and the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation filed a lawsuit against APHIS last month in the U.S. District Court of Portland. They accuse APHIS, in their complaint, of causing harm to rangeland ecosystems and failing to adequately inform the public about treatment areas.
The agency also allegedly violated the National Environmental Policy Act by failing to assess all alternatives to pesticides and analyzing cumulative effects of its programs.
Because the suit is still pending before courts, federal officials were unable to comment.
According to environmentalists, the loss of grasshoppers can lead to a decrease in the food supply for other wildlife that feeds on them.
Sharon Selvaggio (Xerces Society’s Specialist in Pesticide Programs) stated that “we’re very concerned about how these broad, large sprays will impact our grassland, and rangeland ecosystems.”
Selvaggio stated that sprays can be toxic to many insects, beyond grasshoppers or Mormon crickets. He was particularly concerned about pollinators like bees.
These two environmental groups are asking the agency to take a holistic approach to pest control and explore methods like rotational grazing.
Andrew Missel, a staff attorney at Advocates for the West (the non-profit law firm that filed the suit), stated that they are not trying to prevent APHIS from using pesticides ever again. He said that the point was to reform the program.
Arlington’s “cricket queen” Aamodt stated that residents have tried different pesticides. To trap the insects, some people covered their trees with duct tape in 2017. Local officials sent goats to the hillsides in 2017 and again in 2018.
For the moment, those who fight against future infestations are hopeful that the new state program will provide much-needed support.
OSU Extension Agent Maley said, “Keep in mind that they are people who are taking time from their own lives for this to happen.” “The volunteers made such a difference.”
