Las Vegas has been plagued with a dense swarm of grasshoppers for the past several days, to the point that they have been picked up by weather radar. Most of these grasshoppers are migrating north and will continue to swarm Las Vegas until much of them are eaten by birds and other animals.
The pallid-winged grasshopper (Trimerotropis pallidipennis) is a common desert species in southwestern parts of the United States. And after a rainy winter and spring that provided the insects with a feast of rich vegetation, multitudes of grasshoppers that originated in southern Nevada are on the move and migrating north.
Their path carries them right through Las Vegas and could extend into central Nevada, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) entomologist Jeff Knight told reporters on July 25. The creatures fly at night and can cover "a couple hundred miles, at least," Knight said, and during their migration northward, they fly at altitudes of up to 1,000 feet (305 meters).
Despite the huge numbers of grasshoppers, they don't necessarily pose a threat to humans although it might get annoying especially if they enter your home. The best thing to do is just to let it pass and wait for the swarm to leave which will be in a couple of weeks at most, according to Knight.
(Image credit: Valentin Petkov/Unsplash)
John took this video outside the flamingo just now. It’s not snowing. It’s grasshoppers. #lasvegas #GRASSHOPPERS pic.twitter.com/HvF6AZGfjQ
— Nancy Ryan (@NancyRyanComic) July 26, 2019
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