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ST. GEORGE — Farmers in Southern Utah have been losing crops to thieves, but they're not the kind that you can lock up.
It is a particularly bad year for farmers because of a grasshopper outbreak.
David Stirling of Stirling Fruit and Vegetable Company in Hurricane has lost as many as 50,000 pounds of cantaloupe, about 1,000 cherry trees and 500 peach trees since May.
I've never seen anything like it. They ate the rinds right off the melon.
–David Sterling
Entomologist Clint Burfitt of the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food told [the Spectrum](<http://bit.ly/14CRqG0 >) there have been 15 to 20 pest-related outbreaks in Utah so far this year.
He said the increase in pests could be from food resources, plus the amount and timing of precipitation.
