LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — They’re everywhere up here, and they’ve brought the elements of an insect horror movie to the upper Toutle Valley.

The Hummocks Trail near Coldwater Lake is speckled with their brown, fuzzy bodies, and you can’t help squashing them by the dozen as you hike the terrain northwest of Mount St. Helens. They’ve turned the trunks of trees into wiggling, squirming masses. If you briefly stand still, several will creep up your boots and legs. Interpretive signs and kiosks are curtained with their writhing bodies, and if you stand silent you can hear them munching away at the leaves of red alder trees.