Insect attack! US West is battling crop-killing swarms

 


BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Farmers in the U.S. West face a creepy scourge every eight years or so: Swarms of ravenous insects that can decimate crops and cause slippery, bug-slick car crashes as they march across highways and roads.

Experts say this year could be a banner one for Mormon crickets — 3-inch-long bugs named after the Mormon pioneers who moved West and learned firsthand the insect's devastating effect on forage and grain fields.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service reports "significantly higher Mormon cricket populations" on federal land in so...



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