*crickets* ... no really, CRICKETS

August 25, 2016 7:23 PM

I live in a studio apartment that's a converted garage. The past few days, I've noticed a few crickets inside the apartment. Is this something that can be dealt with easily (say, by buying a few dollars worth of glue traps), or should I go ahead and get my landlord involved and arrange for a visit from an exterminator?
posted by ocherdraco to Home & Garden (13 answers total)

Dab of molasses in the center of a glue trap will catch them but if you're in a converted garage you might see them again down the line - perhaps entry points aren't properly sealed.
posted by Karaage at 7:33 PM on August 25, 2016 [1 favorite]

What exactly is the problem? Crickets in a garage apartment- you either squish them or escort them outside alive, or ignore them.

Crickets are rarely, if ever, something to call a landlord or exterminator about in my experience, but I suppose YMMV.
posted by SaltySalticid at 7:35 PM on August 25, 2016 [22 favorites]

The place I work for is in a big steel building, and we used to have a cricket problem; the exterminator just spread diatomaceous earth around the edges of the building, and we stopped having crickets inside. Cheap, safe, easy, you should be able to do it yourself without an exterminator's help.
posted by AzraelBrown at 7:51 PM on August 25, 2016 [9 favorites]

Sorry to get all hippy dippy on you, but glue traps are a horrible death for a living thing, stuck there, unable to move, until they starve or die from dehydration. Yeah, it's an annoying insect, but it's not dangerous to your health. I don't know if the diatomaceous earth repels them without killing them, but there are also humane cricket trap videos on youtube, so maybe consider that?
posted by bluecore at 8:10 PM on August 25, 2016 [10 favorites]

There are perimeter sprays that will help some, but in my general experience there is just periodically The Time When The Crickets Come, and it is horrible for everyone for 10-14 days, and then the world is covered in dead crickets. It's very regional.

(I will never forget the Great North Texas Encricketening of November 1991, when they were on every floor of the 9-story dorm block I lived in, and you had to tuck your pants into your socks before you walked across any black (stayed warmest overnight) asphalt because it was completely covered and they'd jump up your pants legs. They completely covered the west wall of the library, which was 3 stories high. One night, it froze. The campus landscaping crew spent the entire next day running leaf blowers, shoveling carcasses into wheelbarrows and dump trucks.

I have been through other Cricket Plagues, but none so completely comprehensive.)
posted by Lyn Never at 8:28 PM on August 25, 2016 [16 favorites]

Crickets, unlike other sorts of insects (carpenter ants, cockroaches...) are pretty harmless. When I've had them in our basement, I escort them outside. but then I've never had an invasion! so YMMV
posted by bluesky43 at 9:04 PM on August 25, 2016 [6 favorites]

Just catch and put outside. Or sweep them out. They just got lost in your place, set 'em free. I'm of the opinion that if it's not eating you or your food/clothing/house, just try to set it outdoors where it belongs.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 9:50 PM on August 25, 2016 [7 favorites]

Crickets don't bite or anything, and I don't think they lay eggs indoors. The diatomaceous earth AzraelBrown mentioned should do it. You can get some at any garden store.
posted by Nibbly Fang at 10:10 PM on August 25, 2016 [2 favorites]

A few? No worries. I had a few crickets in my basement apartment in Nice. The most annoying thing they do is die, basically. They're very clean, and are omnivores to boot! Which means that in addition to plant matter, they'll eat other insects! Like ants, they tend to keep places clean. Ants pose problems because of their burrows, which can bring about structural issues. Crickets don't do that, though. They just eat stuff.

I also had house centipedes at my place in Nice. Between them, the crickets, and the bats, my place never needed any insect control. They ate pretty much all the nasties.
posted by fraula at 1:00 AM on August 26, 2016

Glue traps work great. We had crickets in our basement and screened in porch. Solved the problem.
posted by fixedgear at 2:56 AM on August 26, 2016

Response by poster: Yay! I'm happy to go down the path of "leave them alone" if they're not something that needs to be dealt with. Sounds like crickets are pretty chill.

Thanks, everyone! Jiminy, Chester, and I will just hang out.
posted by ocherdraco at 3:41 AM on August 26, 2016 [11 favorites]

I thought that having crickets in your house was supposed to be good luck. When I see one in my place, I just leave it be. The only problem with them is when they start to get vocal in the middle of the night.
posted by james33 at 4:24 AM on August 26, 2016 [5 favorites]

Anecdotally - we had a massive infestation of crickets in our Texas duplex. Except first we had mice. So many mice. We got rid of the mice by getting cats, except then we had roaches. So many roaches. Apparently mice eat roaches, so with the mice gone... After we dealt with the roaches, we had crickets. SO MANY (noisy) CRICKETS. Apparently crickets can eat other dead bug parts, like.. dead roaches. Ugh.

The cats were helpful with cricket removal, though they did often leave cricket legs all over the place.
posted by WowLookStars at 7:02 AM on August 26, 2016 [1 favorite]