How can I get rid of this cricket?

February 17, 2004 7:36 PM

How do you find and get rid of a chirping cricket inside the house?

We have a cricket somewhere in our kitchen that continues to chirp throughout the day and night. We haven't spotted it yet. It has gotten very annoying. What's the best way to find it and dispose of it.

posted by jca to home & garden (13 comments total)

This pdf link from Lancaster.unl.edu advices:
"Pour a small amount of cornmeal in the center of a glue board (glueboards are found at hardware stores). Place the board where you hear the chirping sound. Within a day or two, you should have gotten your cricket."

I hope that helps. I personally wouldn't mind some nature sounds in my place but I understand it can get annoying after a while.
posted by azul at 8:18 PM on February 17, 2004

I personally wouldn't mind some nature sounds in my place but I understand it can get annoying after a while.

My experience with crickets was that once they get inside your house, they stop doing the peaceful, reflective, evening-is-come hum and start doing their best to imitate a loose alternator belt.

My solution was simply Raid, sprayed under the fridge, where they liked to hide, and a few other places, which seemed effective enough. It may be good to combine that with azul's answer: the problem with my simple solution is that you don't know where the cricket is. The problem I can see with azul's is that there are probably lots of other interesting food sources in the kitchen. You might want to spray some spots in order to encourage a visit to the glue board.

If you're worried about spraying Raid or something else toxic in your kitchen, I wonder if the product from companies like MosquitoNix might help... supposed to be an extract from a flower insects don't like, IIRC.
posted by weston at 8:51 PM on February 17, 2004

there should be no food source in your home. My experience was that they die off after about 3 mos.

In my case, they only chirped at night. I don't think it was more than one, actually, and so the chirping at night was rather pleasant.
posted by Fupped Duck at 9:02 PM on February 17, 2004

My hearing is piss-poor in the frequency range at which a typical cricket chirps, but if I cock my head just right I can usually pinpoint it to a general area of the room. Then I send in the hound.

For some reason, crickets drive our Vizsla insane, and once she's found the right area she'll work it until she finds it and eats it.

Gross, but effective.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:22 PM on February 17, 2004

Ah, that's a great suggestion. Borrow a dog or a cat.
posted by scarabic at 11:01 PM on February 17, 2004

That's right. 13 years with at least one cat in the house and not a single cricket. Lizard bodies, a baby bunny once, and a very pissed off vole, but no crickets. They're worthless on ants though.
posted by dness2 at 11:45 PM on February 17, 2004

Chirps all day and night? Um, how old is your fridge? Ever vacuum it out underneath? Sounds more like a mechanical problem than in insectile one.
posted by Goofyy at 12:20 AM on February 18, 2004

How do you find and get rid of a chirping cricket inside the house?

You don't. It's good luck.
posted by Shane at 6:14 AM on February 18, 2004

Have you replaced the battery in your smoke alarm lately?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 7:38 AM on February 18, 2004

I had a cricket in my house for about 2 years. Either that or I had a serires of crickets who worked shifts. I actually found it quite pleasant. The louder I played music, the louder he chirped. The few times I saw him scooting about I left him alone. I actually kind of miss him now. I have no idea what he ate or drank though. My dog left him alone as well.
posted by dobbs at 8:07 AM on February 18, 2004

SSF beat me to it, but . . . my mom was really excited about having a cricket in her house for several months, and wanted to find it only because she didn't want it to starve down in the basement, so she sent my brother down to look for it. She was pretty sad when it turned out to be the smoke alarm battery.
posted by onlyconnect at 8:56 AM on February 18, 2004

How do you find and get rid of a chirping cricket inside the house?

You don't. It's good luck.

Many moons ago, my downstairs neighbor had a pet iguana. The iguana loved yummy little crickets. One day, the neighbor knocked over the tank that she was using as a cricket farm. Thousands of the little darlings escaped. Escaped the tank, escaped her apartment, taking up residence throughout the apartment building, but mostly in my kitchen. Now that's what I call luck.
posted by Optamystic at 9:41 AM on February 18, 2004

A similar number of moons ago, I bought 100 crickets at a bait store, and dumped them under the door of the very-annoying Resident Assistant at our dorm.

No idea how he got rid of them, though.
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:40 AM on March 8, 2004