Are you being kept up at night by chirping sounds coming from some far-off corner of your home? Finding out that you have crickets in your home is a stressful and unsetting realization—once you know, you can’t help but wonder how long you’ve been unaware of their presence, or question where in your home they’ve been. You may even feel anxious in your home, or worry that it’s unclean. How did they get inside? Most importantly, how do you get them out as fast as possible?
If you’ve found crickets in your home, don’t panic. While they may not be the most desirable house guests, they’re relatively easy to get rid of—and their presence in your home is not a reflection of poor hygiene or home maintenance. Read on to learn everything you need to know about cricket pest control.
Identifying your pest
While the sound of crickets chirping can add to the ambience of an evening spent around a campfire, having them in your home is significantly less pleasant. Often driven indoors as temperatures drop in the colder winter months, crickets are likely to seek out warmth in places like your kitchen or basement. While there are many different types of crickets, the most common types found in the home are the house cricket and field cricket.
These nocturnal, high-jumping insects are not usually dangerous to humans, though they do pose a threat to a good night’s sleep. Once inside your house, they can also cause damage by chewing on fabric, paper and plants. In extreme situations, it’s also possible that cricket waste in your home, which can carry E. coli and salmonella, could cause skin sores, gastrointestinal distress or infections.
Cricket removal
So, how do you get crickets out of your house? Thankfully, the process of cricket removal can be relatively easy—just follow these steps:
- Create a trap: In a shallow bowl, place a few tablespoons of molasses or honey, then cover the sweet substance with an inch of water. Place the bowl wherever you’ve seen crickets. They’ll be attracted to the sweet smell, then drown in the water.
- Diatomaceous earth (DE): Apply DE around baseboards and in the tight corners of your home that crickets are drawn to. Made from the fossilized remains of aquatic organisms called diatoms, this powdery substance scratches up a cricket’s exoskeleton and causes dehydration and eventually death. Diatomaceous earth is not harmful to pets or humans.
- Glue traps: Purchase glue traps and place them in areas you suspect crickets may be spending time. Crickets will step on them, get stuck and then die.
If you’re looking for more thorough cricket removal than you feel you can accomplish on your own or have a serious infestation that needs urgent attention, seeking professional cricket pest control is the way to go. The services provided by Excellence Pest Control will have your problem resolved in no time. Reach out to us today for a free estimate on cricket removal!