When crickets intrude into your home, they can quickly become annoying and can be challenging to locate and remove. If crickets are in your home, you most likely won’t get a good night’s sleep until you get rid of them. Learning all you can about how to get rid of crickets in the house can help keep them outside, where they belong.
Crickets are a staple of the insect world, and when they aren’t invading your home in search of food and shelter, they contribute to the natural environment in several ways. Crickets help the natural process of decomposition by breaking down plant material; this, in turn, works to rejuvenate the minerals within the soil. Crickets are also a significant food source for other creatures, and they even clean up other dead crickets.
What Are Crickets?
There are several different kinds of common crickets that can be found throughout the United States. These are the house cricket, field cricket, and ground cricket. Each of these three types of crickets has subtle yet noticeable differences. The house cricket is a light yellowish-brown color and has three darker colored bands on top of its head. The field cricket is black or brown. Ground crickets are naturally brown.
Crickets that have wings hold them flat against their bodies. Their wings can cover the majority of their abdomen, but there are wingless cricket species, too. Crickets have readily identifiable characteristics such as long thin antennae and large, powerful hind legs for jumping. Their preferred method of locomotion is jumping or crawling, with winged crickets using flight as a means of escape when threatened. Female crickets have a long ovipositor on their posterior that is used to deposit eggs in the soil. Both males and females have tail-like appendages that are segmented and called cerci.
Male crickets are the only ones that chirp. They achieve this high-pitched sound by rubbing their wings together, and the sound produced is called stridulation. Male crickets chirp when they search for a mate, a female is close by, they have recently mated, or to run off other male crickets. The male’s chirp or song is different for each of these activities.
How to Catch Crickets
Crickets have many different urban legends or folklore tales about them, such as if they chirp loudly inside your home, money is expected to come in, death is coming, or it’s merely a sign of good luck. Depending on the urban legend you choose to believe, you may be more concerned with how to catch a cricket over how to kill a cricket. There are many ways of catching crickets that have trespassed in your house, but three of the most effective methods are:
Using a soda can:
- Empty a soda can, leaving a few drops of soda in the can. Place the can on its side near where you believe the crickets are hiding in your home. The leftover beer will draw the crickets into the can, and they will not be able to find their way back out. You can then take the can outside and release any crickets you trapped by cutting the can open.
Capturing a solitary cricket in a glass or jar:
- If you only have one cricket in the house and found it, you can use a glass or jar to capture the cricket by placing it over the cricket upside down. You can then cover the open end of the container with a magazine or your hand and take the cricket outdoors.
Using an empty bottle:
- Take an empty bottle and cut the top of the bottle off to create a funnel. Turn the funnel upside down and place it into the other end of the bottle with no lid. Use duct tape to seal the two halves, put a layer of sugar inside the container, and lay it on its side near the suspected cricket activity location. Like with the soda can, the cricket will be able to get in the bottle but not back out.
How to Kill Crickets
If you would rather eliminate the crickets, here are a few reliable ways to do so. Glue traps that are typically used for mice are great for killing crickets. Placing these traps in areas where crickets are cricket activity is with a little oatmeal crumbled in the center of the trap will make quick work of eliminating any crickets in that area. If you have an indoor pet, you already have a cricket deterrent. Cats and dogs alike are great for sniffing out and killing many different insects that find their way into your home, including crickets.
If you feel that you are facing a cricket infestation, the most reliable way of eliminating crickets is to contact a professional pest control agency. Professional exterminators will be able to identify, eliminate, and prevent future cricket invasions. If you have crickets in your home, you shouldn’t be frightened as they are not harmful to humans other than interrupting your beauty sleep. Crickets can cause damage inside your home as they have been known to destroy things such as books, clothing, wallpaper, and carpet.
Crickets can be drawn inside by bright outdoor lights, poorly sealed doors or windows, and readily available food sources or moisture. Taking the time to remedy any of these issues will help reduce the likelihood of having crickets knocking your doors down to get inside. Learning what attracts crickets to invade your personal space will help you to keep them at bay and prevent them from keeping you awake at night with their annoying chirping. Not only will you be able to sleep better, but you will be able to rest easy knowing that crickets aren’t destroying your favorite clothes, books, or floor coverings.
