Crickets
Camel Cricket
Camel crickets or cave crickets are tan or gray in color and have bodies up to two inches long with large humpbacks. Their four-inch legs allow them to jump at you when they feel threatened. Their threadlike antennae are as long as or longer than their bodies. Although they appear intimidating, they are harmless to humans. However, they can be a nuisance and cause minor damage to items stored in dark, damp crawl spaces, or basements. Russell’s Pest Control has the knowledge and the solution to keep camel crickets under control.
Field Cricket
Field crickets like to live outdoors around buildings where it is moist. Mulched areas, unweeded beds, woodpiles, stones, and debris provide the perfect home for these insects. You will hear the male’s chirping usually at night. When they rub their front legs together, the sounds serves to attract females.
They can destroy field crops, such as wheat and oats, and vegetable gardens. They also feed on other insects and their own kind.
House Cricket
The house cricket often enters your home where they can live indefinitely. They are light yellowish-brown in color. They have long antenna. During warm weather, house crickets typically live outdoors where they especially like garbarge dumps. When cold weather sets in, they seek shelter in places indoors.
These crickets are active at night and, usually, hide in dark warm places during the day. They often enter homes looking for a moisture source. The house cricket can damage clothing and carpets.
How do you control crickets? Reduce the wet or moist areas around your home. Keep the lawn mowed, planting beds weeded, and remove woodpiles. Exchange outside lights to yellow bulbs or sodium vapor lamps. Seal entry points such as around windows, doors, and holes in masonry. By adding doorsweeps and screens to windows and doors, the population of the field cricket will be greatly reduced in your home.
Russell’s Pest Control is available to provide a treatment for you to keep the crickets at bay. You may need a one-time treatment or our technician could suggest a quarterly service to keep down the cricket population around your home or office.
