Huge cannibal crickets are massing on our eastern border

In this photo sent by a reader in Arlington, Oregon, a Mormon cricket devours a fallen fellow. In this photo sent by a reader in Arlington, Oregon, a Mormon cricket devours a fallen fellow. Photo: Courtesy Photo Photo: Courtesy Photo Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Huge cannibal crickets are massing on our eastern border 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

We're surrounded.

First, we found out about the existence of horrible, slime-producing eels in neighboring Oregon yesterday after a truckload of the disgusting critters was dumped onto the highway.

Now we discover there are huge, cannibalistic crickets massing on our eastern border.

Mormon crickets are decimating crops and causing car crashes in western Idaho, according to a Thursday report from the Idaho Statesman.

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The 3-inch long insects are named after Idaho's Mormon pioneers (we don't actually know what their religious preferences are). But we do know they create problems every few years when swarms of the flightless insects cause major damage to crops, particularly alfalfa hay.

In 2003 several counties in Idaho and Nevada declared states of emergency due to cricket-related losses. 2017 has a chance to be a banner year for the crickets, but experts aren't quite sure why.

"There isn't a clear explanation why populations are so much higher this year," Abby Powell of the USDA's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service wrote in an email to the Associated Press. "We know that populations are cyclical."

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The problems caused by crickets aren't limited to farmers, as the insects can be a real hazard for drivers. Swarms are often hard to see until motorists are right on top of them, and once crushed, they can make pavement slippery as ice. (There's no word on how cricket-slick roads compare to the conditions caused by slime-producing "snot snakes.")

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According to The Statesman, the USDA has treated about 500 acres of federal land with poisonous cricket bait that works twice as hard thanks to the fact that the crickets eat the bodies of their fallen comrades.

They are truly a nightmare.

So maybe stay at home this weekend, lock your doors and be on the lookout for any other horrible creature that might be coming after us.

Seattlepi.com reporter Stephen Cohen can be reached at 206-448-8313 or stephencohen@seattlepi.com. Follow Stephen on Twitter at @scohenPI.