Crickets are associated with summer, night, and peaceful ambiance. Many settings from different movies and novels have been set with cricket chirping in the background while people are lounging in chairs, sipping their cocktails or beer. However, the real world is different from movies and novels, as crickets can create chaos in your garden as disturb your peaceful slumber.
Crickets are considered prey for many animals like birds, cats, geckos, and frogs. They are relatively harmless until they disturb you from your sleep with their relentless chirping all night long. Sure, they may sound music to your ear for a few nights, but if they start to disturb you from your beauty rest, especially when you are tired and all you need to do is sleep, you may change your point of view. Not only that, since they can munch their way to your beloved plants, I bet crickets will no longer hold any appeal to you.
When few are relatively harmless, however, when there is an infestation, especially during summer when the weather is nice and warm, it can be a pain in the neck for your garden and sometimes inside your house. If you are reading this article, you may be already looking for ways to get rid of crickets in your garden yard. Well, you have come to the right place. So please read on, and let’s talk about crickets, their diets, behavior, and how to get rid of them using practical methods at home.
Most Frequently Asked Question about Crickets
There is a saying that says you need to understand what the problem is to remove it. And a lot of times, it is true. Since crickets are nocturnal creatures, we need to understand them first to plan an attack and get rid of crickets in our garden yard.
Crickets are generally harmless, and if you live in a city, listening to the sound the crickets create can even be considered music. But did you know that male crickets produce sounds? The product sounds to attract females and mate with them. It’s like male crickets serenade the females to get attention. And most of the time, the warmer the weather is, the faster the chirping sound they produce. However, in 900 different species of crickets, some are mute and do not produce sound at all.
The US has about a hundred different species of crickets. And most of them can be found in your garden yard. And sometimes, these crickets can be a handful and cause headaches, especially when their chirping wakes you up in the middle of the night. And there are even studies that claim many crickets may excrete a substance that can cause insanity. Now, we don’t want that happening anytime soon.
Another threat when you are dealing with crickets is different animals that they will for sure attracts. Crickets are known to be a favorite source of protein in the animal kingdom. And crickets are announcing to the world that they are in your garden by the sound they produce, which is not so discreet.
Overview
- What are the Signs of Cricket infestation?
- What attracts crickets?
- What is the difference between crickets and grasshoppers?
- How to get rid of crickets chirping
- How to get rid of cricket home remedies
- How to humanely kill a cricket
- How do we keep crickets away without killing them?
What are the Signs of Cricket infestation?
There are not many signs of cricket infestation. But if you are experiencing some of these things, it only means it is time for war.
Chirping sound – one cricket alone can wake you up at night when they are near you or your bedroom window. So, imagine if you have multiple crickets chirping their way and vying for the attention of their female counterpart. It will not only wake you up at night; your neighbors may hear them too.
Crickets inside your house: Crickets are attracted to light. If you have an open window or door, they may find their way inside your home. And multiple crickets that find their way through your house could only mean there are still many more outside your garden.
Dead Crickets on your patio: If your patio light is on throughout the night, you may have noticed many dead or even alive crickets on your deck in the morning. It is a sure sign of a cricket infestation that you need to address as soon as possible.
What attracts crickets?
Crickets are part of the ecosystem and are prey to small animals as well. But like many animals and insects, they are attracted to your garden because of food, shelter, and light. So let’s talk about them one by one.
Shelter: Crickets can live everywhere, but they prefer warm and grassy areas. They lay their eggs in moist places but do not prefer them as their living environment. They are nocturnal and prefer dark spaces during the day to avoid predators like geckos, raccoons, and other insect-eating animals.
Food: Crickets are omnivores. They eat organisms in water, but their primary food source is plants. If you have plants in your garden, crickets will munch on them. If you have a cricket infestation, that could mean saying goodbye to some of your favorite plants as they can gnaw on them until there’s no more.
Lights: Although crickets prefer dark and damp places to hide during the daytime, they are still attracted to lights coming from your house at night. Possibly because of the warmth they give, especially during nighttime when the sun cannot warm them.
What is the difference between crickets and grasshoppers?
Crickets are a cousin of grasshoppers. If you think grasshoppers and crickets are different in color, you are correct. However, there are also brown grasshoppers, and you might mistake them for crickets as well. Although both insects live in the same environment and crickets and grasshoppers chirps to attract mates, they have many differences. Here are the differences between crickets and grasshoppers aside from their color.
Characteristics of Crickets
Color and Size: Crickets are smaller than grasshoppers. They are also primarily brown or black. In addition, they have longer antennae than grasshoppers.
Behavior: Crickets are nocturnal creatures and are aware during nighttime. They can “sing” all night low without pause to attract females. And they are not very discreet in doing so either.
Diet: Crickets are omnivores, and they eat whatever is available. From plants to organisms living in the water. They are not such picky eaters and can live by eating anything.
Characteristics of Grasshoppers
Color and size: Grasshoppers are more extensive than crickets. They are both green or brown. They also have a sorter antenna than crickets.
Behavior: Grasshoppers are diurnal or active during the day. You can ofter see grasshopper feeding off from a plant or tall.
Diet: Even though accounts claim that grasshoppers are omnivores, their primary food source is still plants. And they have a healthy appetite. If many, grasshoppers can eat your whole garden in record time. Almost a lot like locusts will do when there is an infestation.
How to get rid of crickets chirping
People may view cricket chirping sound as peaceful and even romantic in some countries. But if chirping disturbs your peace and robs you off of your beauty sleep, it is time to get rid of them once and for all.
The best way to get rid of crickets is to get rid of their source of food. But then again, it would be a bit difficult since they are not picky eaters and can live off on anything that they can get their hands on. So one way to get rid of them is by regularly cleaning your house and ensuring that crickets are not inside your home.
If you suspect that crickets are inside your bedroom walls doing their concert every night, all you need to do is pump up that air conditioning system and have crickets feel how cold it is. Crickets chirping became faster and louder if it is warmer. So, crickets will not sing and even fly away from your bedroom walls if they feel cold. These insects thrive in warm weather, and they will feel like winter is coming if they feel cold because of your air conditioner. Just make sure you have a warm blanket with you.
You can also soundproof your bedroom to ensure crickets will not disturb you from getting that goodnight’s sleep. But, again, it is a foolproof idea that you can use to get rid of crickets and their destructing sound permanently.
Sounds that scare crickets
There are not many sounds that could scare crickets. However, the sound of natural predators will work for sure to launch them into action to hide. These are the sound of geckos and frogs that are known to eat insects. And one of their favorites is cricket.
Geckos: Geckos eat insects inside and outside your home. You can find them in gardens, in the bushes, and in tall grasses. They produce a chirping sound to communicate with other geckos nearby. Unfortunately, the sound they make depends on the type of species they are. And crickets found the sound scary as it only means geckos are nearby to hunt for food, and they are one of them.
Frogs – frogs also produce sounds to attract the female of their species. It could be a deep and baritone sound or a high-pitch one. The sound frogs have different sounds from one species to another. It also scares off crickets as frogs are also natural predators and love to munch on crickets.
How to get rid of cricket home remedies
There are ways on how to get rid of home crickets without calling your friendly neighborhood pest company. I mean, they are great and all but could cause you arms and legs. So before dialing that number, you might want to try getting rid of crickets at home using these ingredients that you can find at the comfort of your home.
Molasses: Crickets are not picky eaters, but they also have a sweet tooth. You can use molasses as bait for crickets so you can get rid of them in the morning. How? Just put some molasses in a deep bowl. Enough to cover a cricket’s body but not too much so they can crawl out. Crickets will fly into the bowl to get the molasses, and since it is sticky, they will not be able to get out. If the molasses is deep enough, crickets will drown.
Beer – After drinking a beer straight from the can, don’t just throw them out. You can use an empty beer can as bait for crickets. Crickets will eventually dive into the beer can for the remaining beer it has, but it will not be able to fly out. Throw the beer can in the morning, and most of the time, you will find crickets and other insects inside.
Sugar and water: If you do not have molasses in your home, that’s okay. You can use sugar and water instead. Stir one part sugar and one part water into a deep bowl and leave it to the area where crickets are known to hang out. Empty the bowl in the morning and repeat the procedure at night until there are no more crickets left.
How to humanely kill a cricket
If you think drowning crickets is inhumane but still want to get rid of them, you might want to try these things instead. They kill crickets fast. So fast that crickets will not know what hit them.
Bug Zapper: Bug zappers attract insects by using light. Since crickets are attracted to light, they will fly into these devices. But when they touch the wires, they will get electrocuted. Crickets do not have any time to react when killed.
Cats: Introducing natural predators is not inhumane at all. If you have cats at home, you may let them loose from time to time in your garden to catch and eat crickets. Your cat will get to play outside and, at the same time, remove crickets for you.
Other predators: There are also geckos, frogs, and even raccoons that eat crickets, and you can introduce them to your garden’s ecosystem. However, since these creatures also are under pest status, you might want to think twice before letting them loose into your garden yard. If you don’t want another headache after you get rid of the crickets, that is.
How do we keep crickets away without killing them?
If killing crickets makes you cringe and you are trying to find a solution that could keep them away without actually killing them, then this section is for you. However, note that getting rid of them without killing them could prove to be more work for you. But if you are up to the challenge, you need to make your house and garden unattractive to crickets.
Cleaning:
- Make your garden yard unappealing for crickets by mowing your garden.
- Trim bushes and upturn stone where crickets are residing.
- Remove weeds and, if possible, do a landscape with sands in them.
Crickets prefer grass and soil to sand and rocks. Empty trash cans and cover buckets of water as well. Regularly clean your garden every other day to prevent crickets from coming back.
Lights: Since crickets are attracted to light, if possible, remove any light from your patio during the night. If you need to have some lights on, choose dimmer bulbs and have yellow hues in them. These will lessen the crickets that are attracted to the light. You also need to turn off the light inside your home if you are not using them not to attract crickets.
Screen: Install screen all over your house to prevent bugs like crickets from entering them. Patch any holes in the wall so they cannot enter your turf. Since crickets do not like cold weather, you can also use air conditioning units to make your house cooler than outside.
