If you’ve driven near Fillmore lately, chances are you’ve already seen (or heard) them—waves of Mormon crickets covering roads, crawling over fences, and crunching underfoot. Pest season in Utah is officially underway, and these creepy crawlers are leading the charge.
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🚨 What’s Going On in Fillmore?
The recent surge of Mormon crickets in Millard County has caught the attention of residents, travelers, and pest control experts. According to local news reports, the infestations have grown so thick in some areas that they’re becoming a nuisance to traffic, homes, and agriculture.
These aren’t your average backyard bugs. Mormon crickets can swarm in the tens of thousands, forming massive, ground-crawling waves that devour vegetation, soil nutrients, and anything in their path.
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🧐 What Are Mormon Crickets, Anyway?
Despite the name, Mormon crickets aren’t true crickets—they’re actually large, flightless katydids. Here’s what makes them stand out:
• Size: 2–3 inches long
• Color: Dark brown, reddish, or green
• Behavior: Swarm in huge groups for migration and feeding
• Diet: Crops, grasses, flowers, even other dead crickets
Fun fact (or nightmare fuel?): They eat each other if food is scarce or one gets injured.
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🌾 Why Are They a Problem?
1. Agricultural Damage: They can decimate crops, especially grains, alfalfa, and native grasses.
2. Traffic Hazards: Large swarms can make roads slick and dangerous when crushed by vehicles.
3. Home Invasions: In rural areas, they’ll crawl over fences and onto porches, siding, or even into garages.
4. Environmental Imbalance: They compete with native herbivores and attract larger predator populations.
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🛠️ What You Can Do (and What We Can Do for You)
✅ Keep lights low at night: They’re drawn to exterior lighting.
✅ Create physical barriers: Fencing and screen guards can help.
✅ Don’t squash them near your house: It attracts more crickets (yes, really).
✅ Call SPIDR Pest Control if you’re seeing them in or around your property. We can provide targeted treatments and deterrents.
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📍 Bottom Line
While Mormon crickets have always been part of Utah’s desert ecology, years of dry weather and warming temperatures are helping them thrive—and Utahns need to stay prepared. Whether you’re in Fillmore, Spanish Fork, or anywhere in central or southern Utah, it’s worth keeping your eyes on the ground this summer.
Don’t wait until your porch looks like a horror movie set—let SPIDR handle it before it gets out of control.
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🔗 Sources:
• Utah Public Radio – Wild About Utah: Mormon Crickets
• Fox13Now – Cricket Infestation Returns to Fillmore
• KUTV – Mormon Crickets in Fillmore (original article)
• USDA – Pest Management Guides
Photo credits:
– Alamy stock (Mormon Cricket, front view, desert soil)
– Alamy stock (Female Mormon Cricket with ovipositor in hand)
