Millions of flightless insects, known as Mormon crickets, have overrun part of Nevada, alarming residents, covering streets and buildings, and fueling nightmares. Footage shared on social media and local news shows six counties in the state under siege, with thick carpets of bugs slowly moving across the state. A local hospital had to deploy brooms and leaf blowers to clear the way for patients to enter the building, a Northeastern Nevada Regional Hospital spokesman said. Insects not only conjure terrifying plague-like images, but make roads dangerous when large numbers of them are crushed making the asphalt slippery.
Despite their name, the insects are not biologically crickets but technically large, shield-backed katydids that closely resemble grasshoppers, according to the University of Nevada. They do not fly but walk or jump. They lay eggs in the summer, which lie dormant in the winter and then hatch in the spring. But this year, due to an unusually rainy winter, the little ones arrived late. The army of bugs moving across Nevada can stay at its peak for four to six years, before being brought back under control by other bugs and predators.
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