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Jed Boal ReportingGrasshoppers are munching their way through another valley in Utah, threatening to destroy crops and gardens if they're not stopped. Kamas Valley is infested for the first time, and people want to squash them in their tracks.
Walk through any field or yard in the Kamas Valley and a sea of grasshoppers parts at your feet. Summit County extension agent Sterling Banks says the pests showed up last year.
Sterling Banks, Summit County Extension Agent: “The infestation we had last year was just ideal for the grasshoppers to mature and lay their eggs."
This spring the grasshopper hatch exploded; they now number 50 to 100 per square yard. You can blame the infestation on the drought. Tooele and Juab Counties have been ravaged for several years.
Left alone, they could eat 20 to even 50 percent of what the farmers grow, and plenty of plants from home gardens. So more than 100 property owners got together to have 18,000 acres sprayed with insecticide tomorrow.
John Blazzard's family has lived in this valley since it was first settled; he says no one can remember an infestation like this.
John Blazzard, Kamas Valley Farmer: “They just pretty well strip all the leaves off and just leave the stalk standing, and eat all the undergrowth right down to the dirt."
The spray tomorrow won't kill the grasshoppers on contact, but it will stunt their growth and eventually they'll die. It will also limit the number of eggs they're able to lay.
Sterling Banks: “Those that survive the spraying program and reach full size will lay the eggs for next year."
Next year they’ll spray again. It should take several years to kill off the greedy grasshoppers, generation by generation. A wet winter and spring would certainly help cut down the number of grasshoppers, which flourish in drought conditions.
