Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240551
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RENO, NEV. LENGTH: Medium
The federal government has joined the battle to protect the region's alfalfa but had to postpone the start of aerial spraying Monday because of rain.
"I got my own guy out there killing crickets because I don't want to wait for the government to help," said Eldon Crawford, a rancher near Golconda whose fields sit below canyons thick with the insects, which can grow to the size of a mouse.
"I've had them for the past three years, but this is the worst. I don't know how strong they're going to get. They're just babies now."
The insects cover some 700,000 acres in five counties of north-central Nevada in the worst infestation since the '30s, with crickets counted at 100 per square foot in the worst areas, near Winnemucca, said Dick Rowe, coordinator for the Nevada Department of Agriculture's Plant Industry program.
Rowe said the crickets are about three-quarters of an inch long but will grow up to two inches within the next month as they start a hungry march across Nevada, eating everything in sight.
"They haven't damaged any cropland yet," he said. "But the federal government is putting on another crew to poison them within a couple of days. Right now things are looking good. But it can very easily get out of hand pretty quick."
Several dry winters and a lack of natural predators - the crickets get caught in the craw of gulls and other birds - created perfect conditions for the infestation, experts said.
The juice-spitting insects, which can bite humans if disturbed, got their name from an infestation in Utah in the 1800s. Legend has it that gulls from Salt Lake City ate the crickets to save the area from destruction.
For the past couple of weeks, the state Agriculture Department has spread poison bran bait near hatching sites at the mouths of canyons near Winnemucca, 160 miles from Reno.
Martin Larraneta, department district chief, said ground and aerial poisoning should control the crickets.
"The idea is to stop them before they get to the farms and come into town," he said. "I don't think it'll get that bad."
George Nash, head of the federal Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service plant disease and quarantine operation, estimated it would cost $15 per acre for control measures.
Farmers and ranchers will pay half the cost on private land; the U.S. government will pick up the tab on public property.
by CNB