LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — When millions of grasshoppers swarmed the Las Vegas valley a few years ago, tourist and locals alike were taken by surprise. During 2019’s infestation, Channel 13 talked with people who couldn’t stand the sight of the creatures or the crunch sound of dead grasshoppers being walked on.
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Up and down the Strip these critters were seen buzzing around. Meteorologist even had to debunk readings on doppler radar for what looked like widespread rain but was really the bugs flying to Las Vegas.
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The area took in more than 45 million grasshoppers during many summer weeks that year. The cause: we had a wet spring, which UNLV insect expert Allen Gibbs says is conducive to grasshoppers multiplying rapidly because of an increase in food source.
"What happened was we had a wet and warm spring. Lots of plant growth. Then you go through a couple of generations of grasshoppers. Their populations get really big. They eat all the plants. They have to go somewhere and they’re attracted to light. And the brightest place on the planet is Las Vegas," Gibbs explained.
Channel 13 has seen multiple videos of grasshoppers flying through the valley, especially near lights lately. Are we in store for another hopper invasion? We asked Professor Gibbs what he thought of the recent videos surfacing.
"What happened this year is that we had a drier than normal spring. Summer of quite dry too. We had a lot of monsoon rain but it takes a couple of generations to built up grasshopper population. There could be a little bit but it’s not going to build up like it did in 2019," says Gibbs.
So it doesn’t look like we will get swarmed again this year and nothing seems out of the ordinary on a grand scale. Grasshoppers aren’t harmful, mostly just annoying with all the hopping and flying around.
