USDA Plans Attack on Mormon Crickets and Grasshoppers
Published Date: 6/18/2026
Notice
Summary
The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is updating its plan to control grasshoppers and Mormon crickets across 17 western states. They’re asking the public to share ideas and concerns by July 20, 2026, before finalizing the plan in August 2027. This effort aims to protect rangelands and farming without causing harm to the environment or people.
Analyzed Economic Effects
5 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 1 costs, 2 mixed.
APHIS will treat infested rangelands on request
If you manage rangeland (for example, a ranch), APHIS will treat Federal, State, or private lands that are infested at “levels of economic infestation” when you request assistance. The law and the notice say APHIS only engages when an affected landowner or land manager asks for help, and treatments are considered when infestations reach economic thresholds.
If Alternative 2 is chosen, APHIS won’t do insecticide treatments
One proposed option (Alternative 2) would limit APHIS to surveys, monitoring, mapping, and technical assistance and not fund or participate in any insecticide treatments. That means if this option is selected, affected land management agencies, private groups, or individual landowners would be the ones to implement any suppression treatments.
Preferred plan drops malathion and uses RAATs only
APHIS' preferred alternative (Alternative 4) would stop using malathion and would only apply insecticides using Reduced Agent Area Treatments (RAATs). RAATs alternate treated and untreated swaths and, according to the notice, reduce the volume of insecticide applied per protected acre to less than half compared with full-coverage conventional applications.
When APHIS considers treatment: numeric thresholds
APHIS uses a population threshold to consider suppression: historically a ratio of eight adult grasshoppers per square yard has been used as the minimum. The notice states that normally suppression is not conducted unless populations are two to three times greater than eight adults per square yard, though APHIS may act at lower levels when preventive measures are warranted.
Potential future use of biopesticides with tradeoffs
APHIS may add biopesticides to its toolbox under adaptive management (Alternatives 3 and 4) if they are EPA-registered, shown to be effective and economical, and are found to pose no greater risks than current treatments. The notice says biopesticides are generally nonpathogenic to humans but could pose risks to immunocompromised or allergen-sensitive people and to some non-target invertebrates; experimental studies so far have not shown them to be economical or effective in U.S. field trials.
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