Nevada confronts invasion of blood-red crickets

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(20 Jun 2023)
FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: 4440582

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spring Creek, Nevada - 16 June 2023
HEADLINE: Nevada confronts invasion of blood-red crickets
1. Various of Mormon crickets on various surfaces
ANNOTATION: The big red bugs leave behind a horrible stench. They stick to tires and bottoms of shoes. When they move, it sounds like rain.
2. Shot of Mormon crickets crunching beneath tires as a vehicle drives over them

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spring Creek, Nevada - 17 June 2023
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
3. SOUNDBITE (English): Jeremiah Moore, Spring Creek resident:
"As we squish them, they just eat because they eat everything and anything in their path they'll eat, including each other."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spring Creek, Nevada - 17 June 2023
++SOUNDBITE COVERED++
4. SOUNDBITE (English): Jeremiah Moore, Spring Creek resident:
"Yeah. They once they start to get real squished on the road, it's almost like an oil slick. I actually at this intersection was coming home and as I came around the corner, I came around a little too fast and it I about ended up in the in the ditch full of water. It was pretty intense."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spring Creek, Nevada - 16 June 2023
5. Shot of Mormon crickets crunching beneath tires as a vehicle drives over them
6. Various of Mormon crickets on plants
ANNOTATION: Residents and workers have tried to use brooms, leaf blowers, pressure washers and snow plows to get rid of the crickets, only for them to return.
7. Shot of crickets cross a stained red road

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spring Creek, Nevada - 16 June 2023
8. Shot of hand among crickets

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spring Creek, Nevada - 17 June 2023
9. SOUNDBITE (English): Jeremiah Moore, Spring Creek resident:
"Yeah, they really are a pest to the ranchers. They eat just destroy their crops. I've seen them eat small mammals and things. Anything gets in the way and get bogged down, becomes food."

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Spring Creek, Nevada - 16 June 2023
9. Crickets crawling over a concrete barrier
10. Wide of highway sign, warning “CAUTION SLICK ROAD.”
ANNOTATION: Officials have erected signs warning drivers of slick highways, a popular hangout spot for insects that will eat their dead friends.

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Elko, Nevada - 17 June 2023
11. The Rozelle family vacuums up Mormon crickets from their front yard
++SOUNDBITE PARTIALLY COVERED++
12. SOUNDBITE (English): Doug Rozelle, Elko Nevada resident:
Probably about a week and a half ago, the Mormon crickets invaded this area of Elko, and we've kind of let them go for the past week, just kind of let them take their course, hoping they would move on and die, but they haven't. So today, the wife I and my grandson, Levi, decided to go ahead and start to at least clean off the house, rid of all the poop and pee and start to wash the house. And the only really way to start to get rid of them is to vacuum them up, sweep them up, put them in a large garbage can, and then just kind of throw them away. But we expect we'll have to do this for the next five or six days as they just keep coming and coming and coming."
13. Doug Rozelle family sprays down his home while cleaning up from Mormon
crickets
14. Various of Levi Madrigal helping his grandfather vacuum up Mormon crickets from the front yard
15. Shot of trash can full of crickets
STORYLINE:

Elko, a small town of about 20,000 near Idaho and Utah known for its gold mining, has been hit hard by the invasion of cannibalistic critters. They won't stay long, Knight said, but frustrated residents can't wait to see their new neighbors pack up and leave.