Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Experts said an influx of crickets that some San Antonio residents have called a "plague" resulted from "perfect" weather conditions that allowed the insects to thrive this year.
Residents said they first started noticing huge swarms of crickets gathering Tuesday in locations including the University of Texas at San Antonio.
One man tweeted a video of himself eating a fistful of crickets with a caption parodying a letter from someone involved in a disaster.
"Dearest Mother," user @MeepMeepNation tweeted. "We are approaching the third day of the cricket plague. What sanity remains is quickly being whittled away. Starving students are now accepting these vile creatures as a source of sustenance. I fear cannibalism is next."
Molly Keck, an entomologist with the Texas A&M Agrilife Extension Service, said the weather is to blame for the plentiful insects.
"It's technically not an invasion because they didn't come from anywhere, right. We just have the perfect three conditions that kind of have to happen consecutively for them to do just really, really well this year," she told Accuweather.
She said the conditions that contributed to the cricket explosion were a dry summer, late rains and an influx of cool weather.
"We had the perfect storm of the perfect conditions to make these cricket populations explode," Keck said.
Experts said the cricket invasion could last for a few more weeks.
