Western drought brings another woe: voracious grasshoppers

A drought blanketing the U.S. West is drying up waterways, sparking wildfires and leaving famers scrambling for water

BILLINGS, Mont. -- A punishing drought in the U.S. West is drying up waterways, sparking wildfires and leaving farmers scrambling for water. Next up: a plague of voracious grasshoppers. Federal agriculture officials are launching what could become their largest grasshopper-killing campaign since the 1980s amid an outbreak of the drought-loving insects that cattle ranchers fear will strip bare public and private rangelands. In central Montana's Phillips County, more than 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the nearest town, Frank Wiederrick said large numbers of grasshoppers started showing up on prairie surrounding his ranch in recent days. Already they're beginning to denude trees around his house. “They're everywhere," Wiederrick said. “Drought and grasshoppers go together and they are cleaning us out."