Where are all the grasshoppers coming from?

PHOENIX - It's an invasion that's gone viral, with a horde of grasshoppers all over Las Vegas. Now, some people in the Valley have noticed more grasshoppers as well.

"No, these grasshoppers are not dangerous or not a pest of any kind," said Drew Foster, an animal curator with the Phoenix Zoo.

Like others who chimed in on social media, Foster certainly took notice of his own surroundings in the last week.

"I think a lot of it has to deal with the amount of precipitation an area gets," said Foster.

Las Vegas certainly had a wet winter, which means a similar set up in the Valley.

"We actually saw a fair amount of rain over winter and spring, and I think that leads to more life in general, more plants growing, more animals, and that includes grasshoppers," said Foster.

More plants create more food for grasshoppers. With more grasshoppers, however, would that create more meals for those pesky scorpions?

"Not necessarily," said Foster. "These are big grasshoppers, and so the scorpions that we have like the bark scorpions or the dangerous ones or the more venomous ones, I should say, they're actually smaller than these grasshoppers. So I don't think there's going to be a whole lot of predations on them."

The biggest message is the flash in the pan in Vegas and the Valley will be gone in a flash.

"Invertebrates like grasshoppers aren't very long-lived," said Foster. "They're above ground and active for a short amount of time. They'll reproduce and then they'll move on."