I went into the family room the other night and saw something on the carpeting. I thought it was a dead roach.
But when I picked it up, I saw that it had long legs and a long antennae. It didn't look like any kind of roach I'd seen before. So I took photos of the front and back and used Google lens to see if it could identify it.
Sure enough! There it is! It's a tropical house cricket. But why is it in the house? There's a lot better things to eat outside like that persistent bleeding heart weed we're trying to get rid of.
So I researched it online.
What?!? They eat fabric? I've read elsewhere that house crickets will eat synthetics also. Was it trying to eat the carpeting? Arrghhh!
Wait a minute! It's attracted to messy, cluttered environments? Excuse me! That family room is where mom hangs out and it is very neat and tidy. She is a neat-aholic. She may be forgetful but she doesn't like clutter.
Well, male crickets are supposed to sing and I haven't heard anything... yet.
Have you seen house crickets before? Did they cause a problem for you?
It's wandered in off the street, just to have a look around!
ReplyDeleteSince it was dead, I assume that it ran out of sustenance.
ReplyDeleteI grew up with the non-tropical variety of house crickets essentially. Yes they sing and it can be very disruptive when one is trying to sleep at night. In fact, when I was a boy, my mom put a bounty of $0.10 on every deceased cricket from inside the house we showed her. We could typically earn a couple extra dollars in a month during the summer months. However, I never saw any damage caused by them other than their loud singing at night. But 50 years ago, our things weren't so nice so perhaps the damage just blended in.
ReplyDeleteI never heard of them before. It's amazing that they can eat synthetic fabrics. Hope this guy is a one-off and no more show up.
ReplyDeleteThere is one advantage to being hard of hearing: I don't hear crickets or dripping water faucets. My ground floor apartment is surrounded by lawn on 3 sides. I had some crickets come in from the rain, and they're usually active at night. I used those brown box "roach motels" near my exterior doors and sprinkled diatamaceous earth (a light powder anti-bug dust) around my entire exterior. No more tiny creatures have come inside. Good research Kay! Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteUm...excuse me...didn't the Japanese keep crickets in the house as a good luck charm? I think that you should build a fancy cricket house for him.
ReplyDeleteWhen Oldest Son was in high school he had a pet gecko who ate crickets. He would buy the crickets at a bait shop and house them in a container in his room, feeding them dry cat food. Every day he would drop several into the gecko's cage. For years I would fall to sleep to the sound of chirping crickets. The continuous sound was very soothing.
ReplyDeleteNot familiar withvtgam -Christine cmkk79.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWe love crickets; they’re supposed to bring good luck. But because I have house cats, it’s very rare for a cricket to stay alive indoors.
ReplyDeleteI loved crickets when they stayed outside. It’s when they came inside and I read how they even eat your clothes that had me worried. Termites are horrible enough. 🥴 Because I have tinnitus, I actually hear the buzzing all the time.
DeleteKay of Musings: You’re up early, cousin Lorna.
DeleteWe have crickets here... sometime swarms of them... all black and outside. You see them also on the floor in the malls. These chirp!
ReplyDeleteNot many crickets here in the suburbs, and certainly no tropical crickets.
ReplyDeleteI'll bet our mice friends would eat your crickets! We had a cat who loved insects, too.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever gone to spam before on your blog, but I replied earlier that I thought in your culture, crickets were good luck. I think the proper thing to do here, Kay is to build him a fancy house.
ReplyDeleteKay of Musings: Just goes to show what I don’t know. Mom never mentioned it to me. I’ll have to ask my Japanese relatives. 😂 I wonder if they mean house crickets too.
ReplyDeleteAs a weaver who lived in the woods, I was acutely aware that crickets like fabric. Especially handwoven cotton fabric.
ReplyDeleteI've had house crickets before. I always assumed they came in from outside. Rather irritating when they start to cheep at night, hidden in places that I can't find.
ReplyDeleteWe occasionally got small crickets in the house when I was a child in Virginia. Don't see those now but we get large (2 to 3 inches long) "wolf crickets" in the garage in the fall - suddenly they appear and are very startling hopping around and then in a few weeks they are gone for the year. No idea what they eat or who eats them, but they are sizable. Being deaf I can't hear that kind of noise.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year,
Ceci
We get them evey summer and fall, especially the fall as they find cracks to enjoy the heated house. Also house flies, silverfish and other creepie crawlies. And a fall migration of mice. Ah, the joys of nature. And yes, most of them - not the flies - eat stuff.
ReplyDeleteKay of Musings: Wow! I had no idea there were so many different kinds of crickets!
DeleteHouse crickets? I've never had one except a brass one for good luck that I kept on the hearth for many years. I don't know where it went!
ReplyDeleteI've had a green grasshopper in the house that came in on my garden stuff, but not any crickets like that! I do recall chasing some big bugs when we were kids vacationing on the Big Island. We have to deal with flies and other insects that stay in the Midwest. :)
ReplyDeleteI'd not heard of house crickets before.
ReplyDeleteAll the best Jan
I think it is good luck in your house
ReplyDelete