How Crickets Survive in Your Home

Identifying a Cricket                                                    

Crickets are brown or black with long antennae. They have wings, but don’t usually fly. The wings lay flat against their body, except when the male lifts its wings to scrap one against the other to make a chirping sound. This sound is made to grab the attention of a female cricket. how to get rid of crickets naturally The female cricket hears the chirping through eardrums located on her front legs. Crickets are capable of jumping up to three feet.

Reasons Why Crickets Like Your Home

The most common types of cricket found in homes are the house, field, and camel cricket. A camel cricket looks like a bad experiment and it’s not a pleasant experience to come across one when you turn on the light. Crickets are drawn to your home because they can find an unlimited food source with little worry about being prey for something else, and they like humid, dark places. Outside your home, crickets are food for spiders, wasps, beetles, reptiles,  and rodents.

How Crickets Survive in Your Home

Crickets are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and animals. Nonetheless, crickets actually will eat anything, and they even consider decaying plants and insects appetizing. They will also ingest seeds, fungi, wood and cloth.

Protecting Your Home from Crickets

By taking preventative measures you can guard your home against the invasion of crickets. Check your basement walls and house foundation for any cracks or holes where crickets can enter. Seal any openings you find. Rake up leaves, trim bushes and keep the grass cut around your house so crickets don’t use the area for shelter. Gutters should be routinely cleaned so leaves don’t have a chance to decay and create an ideal spot for crickets to live. Bright outdoor lighting at night attracts crickets, so switch to bulbs that emit a low yellow light. Discard clutter in your basement to eliminate hiding places for crickets if they do get into your home. Call an exterminator and have the perimeter of your home sprayed yearly with a pesticide to keep away crickets.

Get Rid of Crickets in Your Home

There are some things you can do to get rid of crickets in your home. An easy homemade trap consists of a jar filled with water and molasses. Crickets will jump into the jar to get to the molasses and drown. Glue traps catch crickets when they walk across them and get stuck. Diatomaceous Earth is a product that is nontoxic to both humans and animals, but deadly to crickets. It works to get rid of crickets naturally instead of chemically. Prehistoric fresh water Diatoms created miniscule shells that became fossils. These fossils are dug up and ground into the Diatomaceous Earth powder. Sprinkle it around your basement or garage, in cracks and cervices, and behind appliances. When the crickets come in contact with the powder, it penetrates their exoskeleton to dehydrate and kill them.