Colette Reynolds, a resident of Elko, Nevada, United States, went viral on social media after sharing a video showing her backyard being infested with bugs.
The number of insects was so great that she couldn’t even leave the house.
See the video:
@auntie_coolette
The critters in question are known as hopes or “Mormon crickets”. They are from the superfamily Tettigoniidaeclose family group Grylloideaof true crickets.
Entomologist (biologist specializing in insects) Lucas Denadai de Campos, from the Department of Zoology at the University of São Paulo (USP), explains that they are not from the same group that we usually see in Brazil.
Lucas explains that what happened in the case of the video was not a type of attack. According to him, it is possible that in that place there is an overpopulation of these insects, which do not have wings, just like the clouds of locusts, they are in a period of migration, but, because they do not have wings, they walk in groups.
Due to these large migrations, it is possible to see large groups crossing highways or passing through places where humans are installed.
“They can walk up to 2 kilometers a day or more, which is quite a lot for an insect. And this migration may be related to climate or weather change. Bearing in mind that it’s late spring, early summer there, so it’s a breeding season for many insects,” explains the expert, who points out that the change of location can also be associated with the search for resources, food or escape from possible predators.
“They are not necessarily looking for a place with more forest or green areas. They were migrating and ended up stopping at the house because there was something there that interested them, that would help preserve their species. They didn’t stop there on purpose.”
@accuweather 🦗 Millions of Mormon crickets descended upon six counties in Nevada, creating a bug-invested nightmare for many residents. #crickets #bugs #elko #Nevada #trending #fyp
What to do
The expert points out that the ideal, in these cases, is not to put poison, because “it will do more harm to humans than to animals”, and not to kill, because that would “modify the entire ecosystem”, in addition to taking days.
“You have to hope that this swarm passes at some point. They are moving, they are not going to stay there, it is not in the nature of this species to always stay in the same place, even more so when they are in clusters like this”, informs the specialist, who also says that it is difficult to predict how many days they will remain in that place. local.
In 2021, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency linked to the United States Department of Agriculture responsible for disease and pest control, treated more than 325,000 hectares with insecticides in a suppression campaign. of the population of hopes.
Lucas adds that there is no problem with human contact with this type of insect. “They don’t hurt and they don’t have venom either.” “A curious fact about this species is that when they are migrating, some die – and others take the opportunity to feed on that individual, practicing cannibalism.”
@mikayla_x i cried the ENTIRE way to my car which was also COVERED 😭😭 #mormoncrickets #absolutelynot #fyp
Source: CNN Brasil
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