It’s Retro Saturday where we post a blast from the Home Ec 101 past.
Dear Home Ec 101,
I have cave crickets in my house. These things are nasty. Luckily, the cats make sure they are quickly turned into cave cricket carcasses. I’m wondering, though, if this indicates a problem of some kind with the house (gaps that need closing, etc.).
Signed,
Lemony Crickets
Ivy says:
I had to go look up cave crickets, because I don’t believe I’ve seen them before. Yo, those suckers are nasty. I also read somewhere that they are a good source of protein. Keep that in mind if you are ever starving.
At any rate, they are likely coming into your house through little gaps or cracks somewhere. The most common places pests come into your house is through service conduits like cable, phone, electricity. Check those areas where they come into the house and if there are any gaps there, seal them up with caulking or expanding foam.
Remember to check your dryer vents, and if you have a window air conditioner, check to be sure there are no gaps or cracks. I have read that cave crickets like cool, dark areas like basements. If you have a basement, examine the walls and windows carefully to make sure there aren’t any cracks or spaces where they are coming in.
Finally check the seals on your doors. My back door has a small gap where ants like to come in every now and then. It’s on Mr. Ivy’s honey-do list, but it has low priority, so we will probably move before we get that gap sealed. Hopefully Mr. Crickets will be better at tackling his honey-do list than Mr. Ivy is.
Please submit your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com
Oh, that’s too funny! I moved from MN to KY and traded house centepedes for cave crickets. Who knew one ate the other. I’ll take cave crickets over centepedes any day! We call them “Hoppy Bugs.” They seem to like damp and dark places so you could try drying out the areas they seem to congregate in. We used to have a very damp crawl space and had lots of crickets. As we’ve worked to dry it out we’ve seen less and less.
We had a cave cricket problem in our old house, the cats did wonders. We also had luck drying out the basement with a dehumidifier, although it didn’t totally solve the problem.
They are UGLY, aren’t they???
Creepy-est bug I've ever encountered. Tried to stop on one and it charged at me! I swear it bared its teeth.
i have cave crickets right out side my baement door. i walk outside at night turn on the light and there are about 50 of them!!! thank god they have not made their way into my house…………………until last sunday! i guess it got in when we opened the door at least i hope so! it jumped at me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! me and my daughter are screaming! i am telling her to keep an eye on it while i ran to the bathroom and grabbed the scrub and bubble and i scrub and bubbled it to death! i am traumotized, then i read websites about them and how they eat themselves when they have no foo and regenerate! i am petrified!