Claire Reid
People have been left reeling after a woman shared the hoards of crickets that turned up outside her home, with some even questioning if she’s been ‘cursed’.
Millions of Mormon crickets have flooded the city of Elko in Nevada, with residents sharing footage of swarms of the bugs outside their homes.
You can see them in action here:
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Elko resident Colette Reynolds, or @auntie_coolette as she’s known on TikTok, shared footage from right outside her front door, showing dozens of the crickets surrounding her property.
In the clip, she says: “This has literally been the worst day of my life, well, maybe not the worst but it’s definitely by far the most disgusting.”
She then shows the side of her home, which is crawling with bugs and explains that when she woke up that morning, she found her exterior ‘covered’ in the insects.
Colette said that her husband had spent ‘all day’ trying to get rid of them, even implementing a jet wash and leaf blower to try and force them to move on - but to no avail.
As she speaks, Colette pans the camera across her lawn, driveway and walls showing the sheer number of Mormon crickets that have rocked up to her property.
She ends the clip by adding: “I’m legitimately petrified to go inside, because they’re up there and they jump on you.”
And she’s not alone - her clip was soon flooded with equally as grossed out social media users, with one writing: “I would literally have a meltdown.”
While another asked: “Who cursed Auntie?” to which Colette replied that while it does look 'witchy', the crickets migrate through their town 'every year'.
A third wrote: “I wouldn't go outside. I'd be inside crying.”
While someone else said: “You gotta throw the whole house away at this point.”
I have to agree.
Colette confirmed that her neighbours’ houses were also covered with the bugs, which have been wreaking havoc through Elko.
Jeff Knight, an entomologist for the Nevada Department of Agriculture, told KSLTV that the bugs can travel about a mile a day when they’re in the migratory period, like now - but that this can be bad news for road users.
“They get run over, two or three come out and eat their buddy and they get run over and the roads can get covered with crickets and they can get slick,” Knight said.
“The bigger issue is these afternoon thunderstorms and put a little water on that and it gets slick, we’ve had a number of accidents caused by crickets.”
Pretty grim.