Crickets swarmed.

This Mormon cricket was found near Arlington, Oregon. Female crickets have tubes for laying eggs. (AP/Claire Rush)
These grasshoppers are eating plants. Grasshoppers and Mormon crickets make farming hard. (Diana Fillmore via AP)
Grasshoppers swarm around a ranch dog. (Diana Fillmore via AP)
April Aamodt holds a Mormon cricket. She found it on her brother-in-law’s ranch. (AP/Claire Rush)
April Aamodt helps count Mormon crickets. (AP/Claire Rush)

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Summer was hot and dry in Oregon (OR-eh-gun). Mormon crickets marched in.

They covered roads. They chomped leaves off plants. The insects damaged many crops.

Pray that God will send rain and relief from Mormon crickets so that farmers can save some of their crops.

Read More: Mormon crickets were first named in Utah. But they also live in other states in the West. These insects are two inches long! They cannot fly. But they are able to travel at least a quarter of a mile each day. They damaged 10 million acres of crops and rangeland in Oregon alone last year. Farmers finding more than eight insects per square yard this year could have their crops sprayed with insecticide. What swarms of insects did God send upon Egypt in Moses’ day? Read about that plague in Exodus 10.

For more about crickets and other creatures, see Quick as a Cricket by Audrey Wood in our Recommended Reading.