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- NATION, Page 39American NotesINSECTSHere Come The Crickets
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- They grow up to 2 in. long and 1 in. thick. Their piercing
- mandibles can inflict painful bites. They have an insatiable
- appetite for bushes, bark, gardens and crops. And now, in the
- worst outbreak since the 1930s, a huge army of these
- mini-monsters is hatching in a 700,000-acre swath of northern
- Nevada and poised for an expected May Day assault on anything
- chewable in its path.
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- Nevada officials hope to zap the marauding insects, known as
- Mormon crickets because of a severe infestation near Salt Lake
- City in the 1800s, before they march. Aerial spraying and a
- toxic bait will be used. But no one is confident of turning back
- the invasion. Concedes Robert Gronowski, a director of Nevada's
- anti-cricket strategy: "You can't kill them all."
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