True crickets, an insect, are of the Gryllidae family and related down far lineage to the grasshopper, which we all know from our childhood. There are over 900 different species of crickets, and they are living in many places on the Earth, except in certain latitudes. They seem to especially thrive in tropical areas. They like almost anywhere there are plants, grass, moisture, and bushes. Marshes are a nice place for them. Most notably what are easily recognizable about them are their hind legs and large thighs (femora), which give them strong jumping abilities.

Crickets make a lot of noise, especially at night, because they are nocturnal. Only the males make the chirping sound, and they do this for many purposes, including a mating call. Their front wings are covered in hard casing (elytra), and that is how they usually make the chirping sound. They rub these tough leathery wings together. The biggest of all crickets are Bull Crickets.

They aren’t real large though, and only measure about two inches long. Crickets can bite and they chew on plants and other natural substances, even cotton and silk clothing. They don’t use their biting as a form of defense usually, but rely on their coloring and camouflaging as a means of defense. A lot of species are colors such as brown, green, or gray, and the kinds that live in the desert tend to be of lighter shades. Crickets are interesting creatures featured in a lot of folklore and stories that many of us are familiar with.

Crickets live all over the Earth, in Africa, and in the woods of America and Europe. Practically anywhere you can think of that has vegetation is home to a cricket. When they are living in their natural habitation you will find them under rocks as they absorb the moisture in cool darkness. Not in areas that are cool though because they loathe extreme coldness. They like warm moist areas. Grasslands, bushes, and marsh type scenarios are ideal for them. They are numerous on farms, and in meadows, in parks, and in the city. They also can be found hiding out in the forest.

Very tall grass is like heaven to them. Some species of crickets live in desert areas. Around your home you will find them in your basement, behind baseboards, in cracks and crevices, under your bathroom sink, and in your kitchen area. They thrive wherever the conditions are damp and warm. They do like to eat your house plants and will also chow down on any natural fibers such as silk and cotton. Crickets can make a home in the darkness of your closet enjoying your clothing as a feast and often leave holes in them. They also like paper, cardboard, old newspapers, and rotting wood. Outside around your yard and by your entryway you can find them lazing about in the leaves. They especially like leaves that are damp and decaying. Old pieces of woods lying about, and twigs and branches are also places crickets like to live

If you live in Arizona, especially around the Phoenix area, you have noticed that crickets are common in this particular region. You have most likely heard them chirping, especially if you are having an invasion around your property or in your house. Only the male cricket chirps as he calls to the female. If you are having problems with crickets chewing up your landscape, and wreaking havoc in your home, the best thing to do is seek the advice of a professional pest control company. You might need extermination services and learn good ways to keep your living area and yard free from the common pests. Where there are crickets, there will also be scorpions. The three main crickets in the Arizona area are as follows.

Common House Cricket
Field Cricket
Tropical House Cricket

Many, especially in country settings, love the sound of the cricket, a nocturnal creature, as they unwind and sink off into slumber. These can become a problem though, chewing up plants in your yard, chewing holes in your clothing, and any other natural fibers, such as paper material of any sort, including your newspaper and your child’s homework. They especially like gnawing where there is water damage and the wood has been weakened. They are also a main food source for the dreaded Bark Scorpion. Prevent a “Bark Scorpion” invasion of your living area by eliminating crickets so they won’t use your home as a source for their food.

Crickets can inflict a lot of damage around your home with their destructive ways. You might as well say good bye to anything made of natural fibers, such as your clothes, photograph albums, special certificates not in a glass frame (actually they can even chomp their way through the back of a frame if it is cardboard).

Crickets can also chew up your house plants. Crickets attract Bark Scorpions as a food source. Crickets can bite, but it would be rare for a cricket to bite a human or pet. There are so many things they can ruin by chewing holes in them, and not only that, they keep you awake all night with their incessant chirping. The sounds of crickets belong on a grassy hillside out in the country away from your home and garden. That is your territory, not theirs.

The lack of sleep and the worry can cause you many headaches and possible health problems. The male cricket has different sounds for different purposes. The way they do this is with a body part on their wings that scrapes. Only the male cricket chirps, and they often do this for mating purposes, which means they are possibly breeding in your house. Most crickets lay their eggs outdoors, but they have been known to lay them inside. Crickets don’t fly, but they can live in the trees outside of your home, too. They usually live near the ground in moist places, or caves, and such depending on the species. It definitely is not a picnic having crickets living in your home inflicting damage, as you are sure to know firsthand.

On occasion humans do get bitten by crickets. This is usually when they are handling them while feeding them to their pet lizards, iguanas, and other pets that commonly consume crickets. If you have a cricket infestation in your house there is a chance of you or your children getting bitten. Crickets do not have a stinger and are non-flying. Females have a long “oviposter” which many mistake for a stinger. She uses this for laying eggs.

The Spider Cricket (also called a Camel Cricket) is very intimidating in the way it jumps if you happen to see one in your bathtub as it is trying to get out, or some other moisture ridden area, such as your basement. They like to gather in large numbers on occasion. Most say they don’t bite, but some report that they have jumped on their skin and started gnawing and it was painful. Many experts say it is highly unlikely, but why take a chance?

It has been known for a common House Cricket to bite, but only in self-defense, and they aren’t usually capable of breaking a human’s skin with their mouth. This seems incredible because of the damage they can do to your clothes and other items, but even Moth Larvae can damage your clothing with holes. Mice can also do this as they hide in your house, but most people aren’t afraid of getting bit by a mouse, even though it can happen. Always consider the possibility of an allergic reaction to all bites, and this includes crickets if you should get bitten.

Do you already have so many crickets in and around your home that you feel as if you should open a fishing bait store? In some cultures crickets are a symbol of good luck, but this certainly isn’t considered the case if you have a cricket infestation where you live. Not only are crickets noisy, keeping you awake all night, but they have a tendency to eat holes in clothes, some upholstery, and other items made of natural fibers such as cotton, silk, and wool.
They can also make a feast of important papers, your mail, or any other paper products you find in the average home. So what do you do if you have a problem, and this is happening personally to you? Anytime you have a pest problem that seems to be spiraling out of control your best bet is to seek the expert advice of a pest control company.
The same goes if you are a commercial establishment. Pest control experts know where they hide and how to get rid of them and prevent them from making future infestations. Moisture and clutter in the home or business makes you a prime target for crickets. You might have to change some ways of doing things, and try to dry up your area. If you have a basement you might need to put a dehumidifier in it. It may seem like an uphill battle at first, but you will conquer the crickets and learn how to keep them away with professional pest control services.

The best way to keep crickets from invading your environment is to make the situation uninhabitable for them. But how do you do this? The strongest way is to gain the advice of an expert pest control agent. You can tell them your problem and they will guide you in the best measures and steps to take to make your home completely cricket free.

They also have tricks up their sleeve when it comes to exterminating almost any kind of pests, including crickets. Damp moist places are an invitation for crickets to invade your home. They will often enter through basement areas and places where it is most likely to be damp. They like to be warm too, so the heat and steam of a bathroom or kitchen is idealistic for them, especially if it is in an old outdated house with a lot of wood baseboards and such. It might take a lot of revisions, structure wise to make your house cricket proof, but it will be well worth it. Find out where your problems lay as far as dampness and wetness in your house goes. A lot of times water from your gutters and other run off heads right to your foundation. Crickets especially like hanging around cement when it is wet and in contact with soil.

Try to keep leaves and other natural type yard debris away from the entrance to your home to discourage crickets from invading your environment.

Crickets are not really dangerous for your pets unless they like to chase them and eat them. Your pet might be taking a big chance with its stomach. Dogs have been known to eat some pretty gross things, but are crickets really considered gross as they make smorgasbord out of them? It is very natural for a pet, especially a cat or dog to give into their predator instinct and chase insects. The cricket is no exception and maybe even more of a challenge with its jumping and quick movements.

Humans are beginning to consume crickets for their nutritional value, so why not your dog or other pets? Eating them is only a problem if they carry the stomach worm “Physaloptera Spp”. Several species of insects carry “Physaloptera Spp”, including cock roaches, beetles, and alas! Crickets can carry it! If your pet eats an infected cricket the results would most likely be only a semi-mild case of gastritis.

They might get loss of appetite for a while and vomit. There have been severe cases of pets eating insects with “Phsaloptera Spp” and they developed bleeding ulcers and anemia, along with weight loss. It takes quite some time for “Physaloptera Spp” to present itself because the stomach worms need time to eat away at your pet’s stomach.

You could very well have a pet that seems to be anorexic from these parasites and encysted larvae. You most likely will have to have your pet treated by a veterinarian so he/she can experience good health again. In this aspect crickets are dangerous for your pets.

Crickets are the most active at night time because they are nocturnal. They are also the most active in warm and humid environments as they are cold blooded. They get their temperatures for health from their environment and surroundings. A happy cricket in a good environment can jump over 20 times its body length. Crickets don’t really like to be around other crickets. It is hard to believe they like being partially solitary because if you have ever heard how loud they can be in unison at night time when they are in a field or somewhere similar, it can be almost deafening. A grouping of crickets is called an orchestra, such as a group of birds are called a flock.

The sound the male cricket makes in chorus with the many other crickets has many purposes. They have special songs for everything, and one is for mating. They are certainly social when it comes to mating and reproducing their young. Inside many crickets can invade your household, such as the Spider Cricket, and sometimes this will even lead to a fight because they are considered sub social insects. As far as active intelligence goes, like the ants and bees exhibit in building and living, crickets do not really show this. They kind of lead dull lives to a certain degree despite all of the stories about them, such as in Disney’s “Pinocchio” featuring Jiminy Cricket, or “The Cricket in Times Square”. Certain seasons, depending upon the cricket’s geographical location, will find the cricket more active.

Common hiding places in the wild or outdoors are many for crickets as they seem to blend in with their surroundings. They like moist darkened places and are nocturnal by nature so during the daylight hours you might be hard pressed to see one. Their coloring can be brown, dark greenish, or gray so they blend in very well with natural substances such as old logs. Accumulated leaves by your front door are a very inviting place for crickets, especially if they are moist and packed down and starting to break apart in little pieces. This is the way they get into your house sometimes. Crickets also like to hide in old damp newspapers, and sometimes in newspapers that aren’t so old, making another vehicle for them to get into your house.

Once they are in your house they quickly find the nearest place to hide that suits their taste. They might dart for a darkened closest door that was left ajar, even though they could fit under it if they wanted. They could even head to your kitchen and look for an opportunity to hide in the moist dampness under your kitchen sink.

If you have a leaky pipe they will be even happier hiding, and plus they will really be in luck if the wood is rotting on your baseboard because it gives them something to munch on. Crickets usually do not jump around the house in the daytime and like hiding until the night when they can go into any crack or crevice they want.

The common house cricket is hatched from an egg into a nymph. A nymph is like a miniature form of the full grown cricket, it does not change much as it matures, it only gets larger. Dragon flies do this, and so do locusts.

Crickets don’t lay as many eggs as one might think as they only lay about 10 a day at the most. In their whole life time (which might amount to three months, or so) they can lay about a total of 100 eggs to 200 eggs. The male attracts the female cricket with a special chirping sound made by scraping the front hardened wings together.

He uses his chirping for many purposes besides mating. Mating is only one of them. If the female cricket is able to produce eggs, or fertile, she will lay eggs continuously after the male mates her. She has a tube-like organ with which she lays her eggs onto a moist surface, or where ever she happens to live, which might be in your house.

They usually lay their eggs outside, but if they are house crickets and spend their entire life inside your abode, that is where they lay their eggs. This can do this under you kitchen sink, your basement, or any other suitable place. The organ she uses to deposit her eggs is called an “Ovipositor”. It takes about 14 days for an egg to hatch into a nymph during the birthing cycle of crickets.

The common cricket (also known as the True Cricket) is from the family known as Gryllidae and is a form of an insect with an interesting history. They are distant relatives of the katydid and the grasshopper. Most people will recognize a cricket, even though they sometimes confuse them with a grasshopper. The reason they do this is because they are shaped sort of the same. They both have very large strong thighs which help them to jump. Their feet (tarsals) are three jointed, making up the foot segments. A group of crickets is called an Orchestra.
Crickets are also known for the chirping that they make. Only the male cricket chirps, and they do this mostly at night because they are nocturnal. Different songs from the male cricket are performed for different purposes, one might be for mating, and another to drive off other males. The front wings of the male crickets are in a hard casing with ridges on it (Elytra), and they scape these wings together to produce the chirping sound.

Both male and female can hear very well. Hearing is important to them. The average cricket can be anywhere from 1 to 2 inches, the largest being called a Bull Cricket. In addition to their legs which are made for jumping, crickets also have what appear to be arms, and they are often pictured holding things in children’s story books. These are actually sensory appendages and are called Cerci. The cricket has a long history with mankind and lives all over the Earth.