You hear crickets nearby and you’re not outdoors but in the middle of your house? Relax, you’re not out of your mind, you don’t “hear crickets”, you really do hear crickets. You’ve been invaded by crickets in the privacy of your home.
Well, unless you have decided to start a cricket farm in order to grow them and make cricket protein bars (apparently this stuff is a trend now, but more about this later), you have a major problem. They chew on your clothes, wooden furniture, wallpapers, and their chirping doesn’t let you sleep at night.
How to get rid of crickets, these singing clothes-shredding trespassers?
First, let’s learn a little bit more about crickets and then I’ll tell you 8 ways to free your house from crickets and 8 tips on how to keep them away.
Types of Crickets
Well, what? Did you think that it’s just crickets and that’s that? Crickets have their own pride. There are common cricket types that you can find in your house (and garden).
Black Crickets
Also called field crickets, they are black in color and live in the fields, crops, and gardens. They like overgrown grass, flower beds, lawns, and green vegetation. Sometimes they retreat in the house when the weather is bad (drought, heat, and cold).
They are attracted to light at night, just like moths do.
In the house, they like to eat cotton fabrics and attack your indoor plants.
Already worried how to get rid of black crickets? There are many ways and I’m going to present them shortly.
House Crickets
You can easily recognize the house crickets by their yellowish small body (up to 1 inch) and their distinct chirping sound. They live outdoors, but they may come in the house in quite large numbers.
House crickets hide in dark, warm places. Under your kitchen’s furniture or around the fireplace, in dry warm basements, in the cracks and crevices of the walls.
Their favorite meal in the house is your clothes. They have a taste for fashion, I could say. And if the little fashion obsessed fellows won’t get free access to your wardrobe, they will mostly eat anything they find. This means fabrics, wool, silk, rugs, paper (your books are in danger), wood, tapestry, wallpaper, and even the walls! Ouch!
They also like fruits, vegetables, especially if they are a little rotten, so guard your garbage can area.
Camel Crickets
Also called hump-back crickets and sprickets (a combination of spider and cricket), poor camel crickets look like a bio-scientific experiment gone wrong. They look “yuck”!
Larger than other types of crickets, camel crickets are brown and don’t have wings. They don’t like warmth, so they prefer to hide in cool, dark, humid place such as your basement. Outside the house, they will crawl under stones, wood, and debris along the walls of the building.
The feed on fungi from the damp basements, plants, moist vegetal and animal matter (they even eat each other!), and also clothes, carpets, wood, and cardboard.
If they’re hungry, they can migrate from the basement to your house, searching for food.
There are several camel cricket traps available and we’ll talk about them later.
8 Natural, Easy, and Effective Ways to Get Rid of Crickets in Your House
Here are the best 8 methods to teach you how to kill crickets in your home and repel them effectively.
1). Pets Love Insects
Ahem, they love to eat them.
So, naturally, if you get a cat (or a dog) they will save you from these little creatures. Especially cats, curious creatures by nature, will be fascinated by crickets jumping up unexpectedly, so they will love to hunt them down.
Some suggest keeping cricket predators in the house as the best way to rid of crickets. But I’m not going to tell you to populate your house with spiders, lizards, and scorpions (that feed on crickets). I mean, spiders and scorpions seem more frightening to me that crickets.
2). Sweet Molasses Pool-Trap
Crickets love molasses (sugar). So, simply place molasses (sugar or honey) at the bottom of a bowl and add water. Crickets will be attracted to the sweet smell, will jump in for a treat and will get drown into the little pool of water.
3). Deadly Bubble Bath
This is a fantastic camel cricket trap.
Prepare a soapy trap using liquid soap and water in a bowl or jar and place it in the basement or wherever the crickets are. Since camel crickets like moisture, they will jump in, only to meet their soapy death. The soap counteracts their waxy outer layer, which would otherwise make them float above the water (and escape).
4). Put Crickets in the Ground with Diatomaceous Earth
A natural, effective solution to get rid of crickets is diatomaceous earth, a fossilized algae powder. It’s safe for humans and pets, and non-toxic so you can use it inside and outside of the house.
The powder cuts the crickets’ outer layer, causing them to dehydrate and ultimately, die.
Sprinkle it everywhere you know that there are crickets. However, don’t place the diatomaceous earth in humid places, as it will lose effectiveness. It only works as a dry powder.
5). Spray Crickets Away with Hot and Spicy Solution
Make a spicy hot cocktail from herbs like chili, pepper, clove, and water. They are lethal to the sneaky singing critters. Spray on the areas where you suspect they are hiding or even directly on them (if you’re lucky to see them.
6). Essential Oils Insecticide Spray
Some essential oils will effectively kill crickets and their eggs:
- Peppermint oil
- Cedar oil
- Clove oil
- Neem oil
Mix 1 cup of water or vinegar with 50 drops of essential oils (a single one or a combination) and spray the crickets infested areas and even the crickets, if you can.
7). Compassionate Trap for Crickets
If you’re vegan, vegetarian, or just a compassionate person who only wants to get rid of the crickets that sneaked into their house, without causing them any harm, then this is the trap.
With simple and costless materials like a plastic bottle and duct tape, you can make a very effective cricket catcher in no time. The principle of this trap is “catch and release”.
If you don’t have many critters, but only a couple of them lost in the house or basement, see a smaller version of this trap here:
This is one of the best camel cricket traps if you add moist fruits and water as a bait at the bottom of the bottle.
8). Vacuum Clean the House
A HEPA filter vacuum cleaner will help you suck the cricket eggs and maybe even crickets from your carpet, wall cracks, dark and unreachable corners, under the beds and furniture, basement and kitchen.
There are also special cordless insect vacuum cleaners, so you may want to get one of those.
8 Cricket Control Tips
- First, determine what type of crickets you deal with, so you know how to kill crickets in your house or in your garden.
- Mow the grass around your house often and regularly trim the plants and shrubs. This way, crickets will not be able to hide.
- Replace bright white lights around your house with warm, yellow sodium-vapor lamps, amber LED lights or lower-light (bug lights) which are not attractive to crickets. Use outdoor lightening poles instead. Pull the shutters and blinds down at night so the bright lights won’t lure crickets.
- Find ways to reduce moisture around and inside your house. Install a vapor barrier or a dehumidifier, for example.
- Keep the garbage bin covered, as the smell of rotten food attracts crickets closer to the house.
- Keep the perimeter around the house clean, without wood or debris left forgotten, so crickets won’t find a spot to hide and proliferate.
- Seal any cracks in the walls of your house, especially at the foundation, so crickets can’t enter your house or basement. Also, fix the cracks in the doors and windows panels.
- Protect your vents with suitable screens.
All these natural, non-toxic, effective methods are the perfect solution to your search for home remedies against crickets.
Knowing how to get rid of crickets in your home will help you live stress-free and happy in the comfort of your own house.
Which method of getting rid of crickets worked best for you? Let us know in the comments below.