Herald Grasshopper Invaders Turn Out To Be Locusts

HERALD (CBS13) - Wednesday she thought they were grasshoppers, now a Sacramento County woman discovers her home and yard are actually being invaded by locusts.

This is hardly a field of dreams with these little guys popping up and hanging out and eating away.

It's more like a nightmare of biblical proportions as an invasion for Debbie Campbell.

Turns out these aren't grasshoppers like she first thought.

"Now we have locusts," said Campbell.

The baby locusts started showing up seven days ago and are wingless, wild and hungry.

Debbie's crops are dust. She can no longer stop and smell her roses.

They've eaten through her garden, her grass and they're knocking on her back door.

They pop up like warm kernels of corn, and getting rid of them won't happen in a jiffy.

"I have been told that if you put them in the freezer, you can thaw them out for fishing," said Campbell.

Campbell has also tried bowls of molasses to drown them and planting hot peppers. But the locusts went loco for those.

Experts gave her another idea.

"They told us to build a ditch out in this backfield," said Campbell.

But it's too late for that, Campbell is in too deep to start digging deep.

Outnumbered and out of ideas, a heavy dose of wild turkey might help.

Someone suggested help from above, after all these are unwelcome bible critters.

"Call the raptor society, and have them bring out some Swanson hawks," said Campbell.

A UC Davis entomologist has agreed to help Campbell out. She'll pay a visit this weekend to see what can be done to get rid of the millions of locusts.