Mormon cricket is not really a cricket but belongs to the family of katydids and long-horned grasshoppers. It can be very harmful to crops. The Mormon cricket lives in the Western United States and as far east as Kansas.
Mormon crickets are brown, black, or green and grow about 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. They have small wings but cannot fly. In summer, the female Mormon cricket lays its eggs one at a time in the ground. The young hatch the next spring and are full-grown by summer. Farmers use poisonous powder and baits to kill Mormon crickets. In 1848, a swarm threatened to ruin the crops of the Mormons in Utah. But flocks of gulls suddenly appeared and ate the insects.
