Worried About Finding Crickets In Your Home?

In the springtime, many of us look forward to hearing the ‘peepers.’ It is a sure sign of warmer weather on the way and can be so relaxing. What is not so relaxing, is when those crickets get into your Montgomery County home. That same sound that can be so peaceful and enjoyable outside can drive you crazy inside. Finding a cricket once it is inside your home can be next to impossible. Just when you think you’ve narrowed down its location, it chirps again, only this time it sounds like it’s coming from the complete opposite side of the room.

Not only can crickets be really annoying but they can cause damage inside your home as well. Field crickets are the kind that are most often found in homes. They range in size from about ⅛ to ½ of an inch and are usually black in color. They move in when the weather starts cooling off, looking for a place to keep warm. They can damage rugs, furniture and clothing.

Another cricket that can be found in homes is the camel cricket, also known as the cave cricket. On the bright side, these crickets don’t chirp. They can, however, do damage to cloth materials inside your home such as clothes. These insects like it to be cool and damp so they are usually found outside under rocks, in mulch and in woodpiles. Inside, they can be found in basements, drainage pipes and AC units. Unlike field crickets, who move inside to get out of the cold, camel crickets move inside to get out of the heat.

For the most part, crickets pose no known health risks to humans (other than maybe your sanity with all the chirping). They very rarely bite and when they do, their jaws are not strong enough to break the skin.

There are some things you can do in and around your home to make it less appealing to any kind of cricket. First, make sure there are no holes in your screens and your doors are airtight. Check around your house for cracks and crevices crickets might be able to get access through and seal them up. Make sure any leaky pipes are replaced or repaired. You should also consider stacking wood piles as far from your home as possible. Also, make sure crawl spaces and your attic are ventilated. Another simple prevention step you can take is changing the light bulb outside your home. Crickets are attracted to light, so switching to a yellow bulb will attract fewer crickets and bugs in general.

If you think you have crickets in your home and you just can’t seem to get rid of them, you can contact a pest control professional and they can help you out. They can also help you inspect your property to find and eliminate things that might bring these and other insects into your yard to begin with.