The heavy Mormon cricket infestation has all but ended in Sevier Valley - but not before the groundwork was literally laid for a new beginning next year in the form of millions of eggs.
That has prompted local officials to plan for another possible infestation in 1992, perhaps even worse than this year.Large, black diehards and stragglers can still be seen along dirt roads west of Richfield and near the Sevier Valley Canal. It was the canal, along with I-70, that provided barriers against the heavy infestation getting into Richfield. Crickets were found in the city, however, but not in the quantities common to the west.
At the peak of the invasion, crickets covered sagebrush, fence posts, the interstate highway and roadways. They floated along the Sevier Valley Canal at the rate of more than 5,000 per hour for several days.
No longer is the canal running with thousands of dead and live insects that stopped youngsters from playing in the water during the hot weeks of July and early August. Slick spots are gone from the interstate highways in Sevier and Millard counties that were caused by vehicles mashing the ugly pests as they attempted to cross. And the cannibalistic creatures that fed on one another along the tire tracks of automobiles on dirt roads are no longer seen.
But what might lie ahead for next summer has area officials concerned.
Mother Nature could help, but that's probably an outside chance. If warm weather is followed by extreme cold in the late spring, many of the newborn crickets could die. Or, if extremely wet weather should prevail when the insects are in their nymph stages, that too would be beneficial in controlling them.
But in all probability, Richfield and Sevier County officials - along with the federal Animal, Plant and Health Inspection Service - will have to prepare for their own control methods. That would involve baiting the bugs or possibly spraying.
Richfield city officials, led by Mayor Jay Andersen, went on the offensive in a war against the crickets four days after they threatened the city. Bait was spread along the western sector of the city. Inspection service workers baited some areas of federal lands in the foothills west of the valley.
The Sevier County Commission became concerned; but when few crickets reached the farmlands, the commission didn't conduct any control measures. Commissioners probably will do so next year.
The crickets' usually feed on sagebrush and weed-type plants generally not grazed by livestock or used for human consumption. But, if eggs were laid in alfalfa and grain fields and there is nothing else for the pests to eat early next summer, the crickets will then thrive on young corn and grain plants.
Animal, Plant and Health Inspection service officials, who work with other state and federal government agencies, are already preparing for another infestation next year. But they are limited by law and regulations to using control methods only on public lands, and they can't spread bait within 200 feet of any water, said Greg Abbott, plant protection and quarantine officer.
The infestation in south-central Utah started several years ago on federal lands near Oak City in northern Millard County. From there, the pests worked southward through that county and eastward across the Pahvant Mountain Range into Sevier County.
Although their wings are too small to allow flight, the crickets can hop their way along at the rate of up to one mile per day and can cover as many as 50 miles in a season. They generally feed in an area for three or four days in a season.