Crickets invade US town as residents fight back with brooms and leaf blowers

'It's almost like a biblical plague,' local says of large Mormon cricket infestation

Dana Dolan was driving through her small Nevada hometown when she thought she had come upon a gory crash – the ground surrounding Elko's stretch of Interstate 80 looked as if it had been covered in blood.

As the red colour shifted and moved, she realised instead that it was an infiltration of crickets, some bigger than her thumb.

“It’s almost like a biblical plague,” Ms Dolan told the Associated Press, laughing at the absurdity of the situation that is playing out in Elko, where she has lived for six years.

Tens of thousands of Mormon cricket eggs buried a few centimetres deep in the soil began to hatch in late May and early June. For weeks, the red insects have been invading parts of northern Nevada and causing chaos, said the state's long-time entomologist Jeff Knight.

The big red bugs leave behind a stench so horrible, akin to burning flesh, that it forces residents to plug their noses while driving.

They stick to tyres and the bottoms of shoes, and their carcasses are everywhere.

When they move, it sounds like rain, Ms Dolan says.

Residents and workers have tried to use brooms, leaf blowers, pressure washers and snow ploughs to get rid of the crickets, only for them to return.

State officials have erected signs throughout Elko County warning drivers of slick motorways, a popular hangout spot for insects that will not think twice about eating their dead friends.

The red creatures blanket motorways and scuttle over barriers, seeking food.

One hospital even hired four temporary, part-time employees whose main duty was to clear the campus of the crickets long enough for patients to enter the building. The group called itself the Cricket Patrol.

Outbreaks of Mormon crickets, which are native to the Great Basin and intermountain West, have been recorded throughout history across the West – from Nevada and Montana to Idaho, Utah and Oregon.

There are records of infestations dating to the 1930s, according to entomologist Mr Knight.

A cricket climbs on to a man's hand during the migration of Mormon crickets. AP

Legend has it the insects got their name when they started devastating crops planted by Mormon settlers who had moved into the Salt Lake valley in Utah, he said.

The Mormon cricket is not a true cricket but a shield-backed katydid. They are flightless but travel together in “bands” that can range in size from 2 hectares to hundreds, Mr Knight said.

Elko's new red residents will not be moving out until at least mid-August, much to everyone's despair.

But where do the crickets go when they leave?

They die, Mr Knight said. The male crickets after they mate. The female crickets after laying their eggs.