Certain crickets invade homes and become a pest by their presence. Homeowners complain of their monotonous chirping, which can be annoying especially at night when trying to get some sleep. An unmistakable chirp, produced when the cricket rubs a hardened area on the upper side of its wing against a thickened vein near the base of the forewing.

Indoors, some crickets can feed on a wide variety of fabrics, foods and paper products. Cotton, linen, wool, rayon, nylon, silk and furs are susceptible, along with soiled fabrics, sizing from wallpaper, glue from bookbinding’s, fruit, vegetables, meat and even other crickets.

The word “cricket” comes from a French word, criquer, and meaning ‘little creeker.’ The Dutch call the insect a krekel, while in China it is known as kwo kwo. Crickets get their name from the high-pitched sound or “chirp” produced when the male rubs his front wings together to attract a female. Listening to their song can identify different kinds of crickets. The cricket’s tympanic organs can vibrate with up to 20,000 cycles per second, well beyond the sensitivity of human ears. The temperature can be determined by counting the number of times a cricket chirps in 15 seconds and adding 40 to the number.

The “True Crickets” (House, Field, Ground, Tree) resemble longhorned grasshoppers in having long tapering antennae, stridulating (singing) organs on the front wings of the male and auditory (hearing) organs on the front tibiae (4th leg segment).

House Cricket

Adults are about 3/4 to 7/8 inch long, light yellowish-brown (straw-colored), with three dark bands on the head and have long, slender antennae much longer than the body. Wings lay flat on the back but are bent down abruptly on the sides. Females have a long, slender, tube like structure (ovipositor) projecting from their abdomen (spearhead at the tip) for egg laying. Both males and females have two antenna-like (cerci) attached to the sides at the end of the abdomen.

House Crickets normally live outdoors especially in garbage dumps, preferring warm weather, but will move indoors when it gets colder in late summer. Over wintering occurs outdoors in the egg stage. Each female can lay an average of 728 eggs with the immature (nymphs) resembling the adults except being wingless. Nymphs molt seven to eight times and reach adulthood in about 60 days. Also, these crickets can live indoors, completing their life cycle with eggs laid in cracks, crevices and other dark areas such as behind baseboards.

Adults are attracted to lights, and become active at night (hide during the day) to crawl, jump or fly sometimes in countless numbers up the sides of houses, entering openings of even second and third story windows and roof skylights. The continued, monotonous “chirp” is loud and distracting, resulting in lost sleep. They will feed on silk, woolens, nylon, rayon and wood. They are found in fields, pastures, lawns, and in woods.

Field Cricket

Adult’s ranges in size from 1/2 to 1-1/4 inches long are black-colored (sometimes brown), have long, slender antennae and a typical stout body (more robust than the house cricket) with large “jumping” hind legs. The ovipositor may be up to 3/4 inch long. Females have three easily seen appendages coming out of the tip of the abdomen, whereas males have only two. Most chirp and sing both day and night.

Field Crickets over winter as eggs or nymphs in moist, firm soil. Each female lays between 150 to 400 eggs, which hatch in the spring. Nymphs resemble adults except are smaller and wingless, molt eight to nine times and reach adulthood in about 90 days. They are serious agricultural pests feeding on many crop plants. They become household pests in late summer and early fall when they move out of fields and into buildings. They can damage furniture, rugs and clothing and the “chirping” of adult males can be irritating. They are attracted to lights, can fly and are found around dumpsters. Large swarms may invade well-lighted areas covering streets and the sides of buildings black with crickets. They feed on nylon, wood, plastic fabrics, thin rubber goods and leather. Outbreaks occur when rainfall follows a period of drought.

Ground Cricket

Adults resemble house and field crickets but are much smaller, less than 1/2 inch long, and brownish. Spines on the hind tibiae are long and movable. Their songs are often soft, high-pitched, pulsating trills or buzzes.

Ground Crickets act similar to field crickets except are smaller, over winter as eggs, are largely active at night and attracted to lights. They occur in pastures, lawns and wooded areas.

Snowy Tree Cricket

Adults are about 5/6 to 7/8 inch long, pale yellowish – green or whitish shaded pale green and have a single black spot on the front side of each of the first two antennal segments. Male wings are broad, paddle-like, and lay flat on the back at rest, whereas the female forewing is narrow, and wrapped closely about the body. They chirp at a regular rate varying with the temperature.

Snowy Tree Crickets occur in trees, shrubs, weeds and high grass and are excellent singers, chirping at a regular rate varying with the temperature. Eggs are laid in the bark or stems of fruit and ornamental plants, often seriously damaging the twigs during the process of egg laying. Eggs are laid in pin-size holes (usually in single rows), sometimes injuring brambles of bush fruits. Over wintering eggs hatch in the spring with nymphs maturing in late summer. Apple, peach, plum, prune, cherry and berries are food hosts.

Camel Cricket

Adults, sometimes called cave or cellar crickets, are a little over 3/4 inch long, light tan to dark brown (darker bands on some segments), wingless, with head bent downward, back arched (humpbacked appearance), large hind legs and long antennae.

Camel Crickets are active at night in cool, damp, dark areas and damp basements or crawlspaces. They are not attracted to lights nor produce songs. Over wintering occurs as nymphs or adults in protected places. They may be found living in large numbers. Some textiles may be damaged. Some hide under hay bales, feeding on other insects seeking shelter there. Most are found in hollow trees, under logs and stones and in other dark, moist places. They can live and reproduce indoors.

Northern Mole Cricket

Adults are 1/2 to 1-1/4 inches long, brownish to blackish-brown, with beadlike eyes. Their broad front legs are adapted for “digging” (they resemble front feet of a mole). They have rather short antennae, a large head and can fly.

Northern Mole Crickets spend most of their life burrowing in the soil, coming to the surface as the soil is wet or flooded with rain. They are not often pests, but sometimes enter basements or homes. They fly to lights during their spring mating period. Females lay eggs in the soil (35 eggs per cell). Eggs hatch in 10 to 40 days with adulthood reached by autumn. They feed on roots, tubers and underground stems of grasses, strawberries, vegetables, etc. They over winter as adults in the soil.

Chirping

There are special songs for courtship, fighting and sounding an alarm. The principle role is to bring the sexes together with different songs in different species. Male crickets stridulate or “sing” by rubbing a sharp edge (the scraper) at the base of one front wing along a file like ridge (the file) on the bottom side of the other front wing, resulting in a series of “chirps.” The number of chirps varies with the temperature with more (faster) chirping at higher temperatures. Chirps vary from four to five to more than 200 per second. The song is amplified by the wing surface.

Description and Life Cycle

Crickets belong to the order Orthoptera, most members of which have enlarged hind legs, adapted for jumping. In addition, members of this group possess opaque, leather-like forewings that cover a pair of clear, membranous hind wings. Most crickets are nocturnal, whereas their grasshopper cousins are active during the daytime. Members of the cricket family have very long antennae and their wings have the front margin folded sharply over the side of the body, giving them a “boxlike” appearance. Female crickets are characterized by having long, spear-shaped ovipositors, used for egg-laying.

Crickets are sometimes confused with cockroaches, especially the Oriental cockroach, often referred to as the “water bug.” Crickets may be distinguished from cockroaches by their enlarged hind legs and the fact that their bodies are not flattened from top to bottom like those of cockroaches.

Male crickets can “sing,” the song produced by either rubbing a leg against a wing or by rubbing one wing against another. This process, called “stridulating”, results in a series of chirps. The chirp’s function is to attract the female cricket to the male. Each species has a characteristic chirp that is recognized and responded to only by females of the same species. The sound receptor or “ear” of the cricket is located on the front side of the foreleg, and consists of a small pit with a thin; drum like membrane stretched across the top. The membrane picks up the vibrations of the chirp and transmits them to a sensory nerve, which relays the message to the brain.

Once the female cricket is mated, she seeks soil in which to deposit her eggs. The ovipositor is then thrust into the ground and the eggs (150 to 400) are deposited. Unlike grasshoppers, the eggs are laid singly, and are not cemented together in “pods.” The over-wintered eggs hatch in May and June and the young crickets work their way to the soil surface. Young crickets closely resemble adults, but they are smaller and do not have fully developed wings or functional sexual organs. Since wings are not completely developed and functional until sexual maturity, immature crickets cannot stridulate or “sing.” Between feeding periods, the young insects molt from 8 to 10 times, growing a little more at each molt. Most crickets mature in August and September.

Prevention

Sanitation is the most important means of eliminating nuisance crickets. Keep all areas in and around buildings free of moisture, dense vegetation and weeds (1 foot band next to foundation). Mow lawns, cut weeds, and clean up garbage collection areas. Remove harborage sites such as piles of bricks, stones, rotting wood and other debris. Caulk and seal all cracks and crevices, near the ground level at basement windows and doorways.

Make sure that all windows and doors are tight fitting with proper screening in place. Exclusion is an important factor as well as light discipline. Avoid bright mercury vapor lights in entryways and along structure perimeters since crickets will be attracted from far distances. Convert to sodium vapor yellow lights (less attractive to insects) instead of white, neon or mercury vapor lights.

Never store firewood next to the house foundation. Raise garbage cans off the ground if practical. Trash and dumpsters should be placed as far from the building as possible. Crickets are attracted to food in these areas. Crickets may be troublesome at trash dumps, grassy roadsides, pasture fields and wooded areas (breeding sites) before entering structures. Crickets can be collected by vacuum cleaner or broom and dustpan and discarded, if a few are present.

Damage

Crickets have been known to damage plant seedlings, seeds of grain crops and alfalfa, strawberries, tomatoes, and other horticultural crops. In addition, crickets can damage stored tubers or fruits. In hay meadows, crickets often chew through baler twine. On the positive side, crickets often eat large numbers of other insects, some of which are agricultural pests.

In homes, crickets sometimes chew on clothing, draperies, or furniture (upholstery). They are particularly fond of fabrics containing organic materials such as cotton, silk, or wool, but they may damage synthetic fibers (nylon, rayon, etc.). This is more likely to occur if food has been spilled on them.

Control

Single crickets may be captured by hand and released outdoors or killed with a fly swatter, broom, or with insecticides. A short burst of an aerosol spray formulation containing pyrethrins should be sufficient, but this will not provide residual control. If crickets are numerous, residual insecticides are usually the best answer. A chemical cricket “barrier” may be set up by spraying outside the house, around the foundation and about 5 feet out into flowerbeds or the lawn.

Insecticides

Heavy cricket migrations are hard to control. It may be necessary to use insecticides both inside and outside the home. Indoors, apply to cracks and crevices, baseboards, in closets, under stairways, around fireplaces, in basements and other hiding places. Outdoors treat a 5 to 20 foot swath around the house foundation.
At the end of summer, you can’t help but notice crickets. When you go outside at night, you’ll hear them.