Each month the @USNatArchives hosts an #ArchivesHashtagParty to celebrate unique archival materials from around the world. We had to get in on this month’s party - #ArchivesBugs – and we bring you a historic photograph that may make your skin crawl! #Idaho #history

At first glance, this swarm may look like birds, but do not be mistaken – this is a swarm of Mormon Crickets that devastated cropland outside of Mountain Home in 1935. #ArchivesHashtagParty #ArchivesBugs #Idaho #history

(P2001-31-1, Bx 5, Fld 29, ISA)

Mormon Cricket may be a misnomer for this shield-backed katydid, a member of the family Tettigoniidae, subfamily Decticinae. The creature is native to Idaho and most of the Rocky Mountain West, including parts of the Canadian Rockies. #ArchivesBugs

These creatures have called this region home for millennia, and archaeologists have found evidence that indigenous people of North America roasted the creatures for sustenance as far back as 200 BC. #ArchivesBugs #ArchivesHashtagParty

More recently, a major outbreak began in 1931 and lasted nearly two decades. The picture in this thread is likely from that outbreak, which at its peak in 1938 demolished nineteen million acres of cropland across eleven western states. #Idaho #history #insects #ArchivesBugs