# 2026-12242: USDA Plans Attack on Mormon Crickets and Grasshoppers 2026-12242, Notice of Intent To Prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement; Grasshopper and Mormon Cricket Suppression Program, is a Federal Register notice from Agriculture Department, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service published 2026-06-18, effective APHIS seeks public comment on issues raised in this NOI. Written comments will be accepted for 30 days, through midnight on July 20, 2026.; PRIA reads it as touching household money (as of 2026-06-25). - Canonical: https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-12242 - As of: 2026-06-25 - Plain-text twin of the page above; the HTML and this file carry the same facts. ## Facts - Document number: 2026-12242 - Title: Notice of Intent To Prepare a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement; Grasshopper and Mormon Cricket Suppression Program - Type: Notice - Agencies: Agriculture Department; Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service - Citation: 91 FR 36787 - Published: 2026-06-18 - Effective: APHIS seeks public comment on issues raised in this NOI. Written comments will be accepted for 30 days, through midnight on July 20, 2026. - Comments close: 2026-07-20 - Significant: no - Touches household money: yes - Regulation identifier numbers: none - Last updated: 2026-06-25 ## In one line USDA Plans Attack on Mormon Crickets and Grasshoppers ## 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. ## Abstract We are advising the public that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), U.S. Department of Agriculture, plans to prepare a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) to analyze the effects of a program to suppress populations of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets from rangeland in seventeen states of the western United States (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). This notice of intent (NOI) identifies potential issues and reasonable action alternatives that will be evaluated in the PEIS. This NOI invites public comments that further define the scope of the alternatives, potential impacts on the human environment, consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act, and issues for APHIS to consider, relevant information, studies, or analyses with respect to APHIS' proposed action. The proposed PEIS would replace the previous PEIS published in 2019. APHIS expects to publish the final PEIS by August 2027. ## Effects PRIA read - APHIS will treat infested rangelands on request: benefit, high. 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… - If Alternative 2 is chosen, APHIS won’t do insecticide treatments: cost, high. 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… - Preferred plan drops malathion and uses RAATs only: benefit, medium. 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… - When APHIS considers treatment: numeric thresholds: mixed, medium. 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,… - Potential future use of biopesticides with tradeoffs: mixed, medium. 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… ## Related documents - [2026-19532](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-19532): Amendments To Import Requirements for Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, 2026-09-24 - [2025-04813](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-04813): Horse Protection Amendments; Further Delay of Effective Date, and Request for Comment, 2025-03-21 - [2025-01836](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2025-01836): Horse Protection Amendments; Postponement of Regulations, 2025-01-28 - [2026-20631](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-20631): Notice of Decision To Deregulate Chrysanthemum White Rust and the Importation of Chrysanthemum spp. Cuttings, and In Vitro Plantlets, and S…, 2026-10-08 - [2026-20630](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-20630): Cut Flowers Regulations; Removal of Chrysanthemum White Rust-Related Provisions, 2026-10-08 - [2026-19237](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-19237): Bayer U.S.-Crop Science: Availability of a Petition for a Determination of Nonregulated Status and Draft Plant Pest Risk Assessment for Her…, 2026-09-21 ## Sources - [2026-12242 on federalregister.gov](https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/06/18/2026-12242/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-a-programmatic-environmental-impact-statement-grasshopper-and-mormon) - [2026-12242 as published (PDF)](https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2026-06-18/pdf/2026-12242.pdf) ## Related - [Previous: 2026-12241, Agency Information Collection Activities: Submission for OMB Review; Comment Re…](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-12241) - [Next: 2026-12243, Notice of Request for Revision to and Extension of Approval of an Information C…](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-12243) - [All Federal Register documents](https://policyrisk.com/federal-register) Source: PRIA, https://policyrisk.com/federal-register/2026-12242 (as of 2026-06-25).