Mormon Crickets: Earmark to Some, Real Plague to Others

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 17, 2009 11:00 AM CDT

(Newser) – Critics, most notably John McCain, have lambasted the latest omnibus spending bill for its 8,500 earmarks; one frequently cited provision is $1 million to fight Mormon crickets in Utah. “Is that a species of cricket or a game played by the Brits?” joked McCain over Twitter. But to residents of Grouse Creek, Utah, the Mormon crickets aren’t a joke—they’re a plague, the Washington Post reports.

“They’ll crawl right into your house, get up on your walls,” says one cattle rancher of the crop-devouring katydids. “It’s enough to drive a person totally insane.” At their 2004 height, the crickets infested 2.8 million acres, wreaking havoc on Utah’s $340 million agricultural economy. Now, thanks to the steady applications of earmarks—matched by state and local funds—that’s down to 37,500 acres.

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Three female Mormon crickets feed on another Mormon cricket in this file photo. (Wikimedia)

Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, inserted the cricket earmark in the omnibus spending bill. (AP Photo)

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Who gave me the campaign contribution with respect to Mormon crickets? The answer is, obviously, nobody. - Sen. Robert Bennett

It's pretty traumatic. For miles, the town was just covered with crickets. You wouldn't want to step out there because everywhere you go you'd have this crunch and sickening grossness.
- Duane Runyan, a teacher in Grouse Creek's two-room schoolhouse

Put it in purely economic terms, I believe, a case can be made that the feds make money on this exchange. - Sen. Robert Bennett, arguing that spending by spending $1 million, the government is protecting a $340 million economy.

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