The Mormon cricket, an insect species whose members will devour crops and even each other if necessary, could be invading Nevada again nine years after the last major infestation.

After some desert sightings, officials are keeping a close watch for the crickets, which covered around 12 million acres of Nevada in 2005, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported.

"It is more than we've found for the last several years. We'll have to see what happens," Jeff Knight, Nevada's state entomologist, told the Gazette-Journal.

Mormon crickets, which can grow up to two inches long, forced Elko County officials to declare a state of emergency in 2003, when the insects swarmed over hospital walls and covered roads to the point that they were slick and unsafe to drive.

"It was probably the worst recorded infestation," Knight estimated.  

The crickets seem to thrive during drought years due to mild winters, which help more eggs laid from the summer before to survive for the next spring's hatching season.

"It does seem to be drought years that start the higher populations," Knight said.

Traveling in packs of thousands, the menacing crickets devour lawns, crops and gardens; they have been known to eat each other freely as well if they are low on protein and salt.

The insects received their name after they famously almost destroyed the crops of Mormon settlers in Utah in 1848.

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