Crickets — How can you get rid of them in and around your home? If you’re seeing crickets inside your home, the serious predators are sure to follow. So get rid of those crickets—fast.
Here’s what not to do: Don’t empty a can of bug spray on those creepy crawlers. Sure, you’ll drown the ones you can see, but their friends will simply sidestep the chemicals when they come out of their hiding places.
A better strategy is to find out where they’re hiding and lure them out with granular food bait that will trap them. You also can use sticky traps or concoct your own traps using a jar containing some water and molasses.
Part 2 of that strategy is to keep the chirping pests from getting inside in the first place. Crickets may seem like benign little creatures, but they’ll eat through everything from wallpaper glue to wool to silk. And they’ll attract hungry scorpions and spiders.
To keep them outside, you have to find them. They live in voids, like under those decorative boulders in your yard, in your sprinkler system’s valve box, or under the sidewalk and patio. Anywhere there’s a space between the ground and another object, you’re sure to find crickets, which love moist, cool hiding places.
If you find a nest and spray it with a pest spray, be prepared to watch what looks like a river of the bugs pour out of it. More than 1,000 crickets can cram into one tiny nest.
MANAGEMENT
- Sealing gaps in the foundation also will stop crickets, scorpions and other pests from coming indoors.
- While you’re sealing holes, search for other places where critters can come into the home from outdoors—the roof line and entry points for plumbing and electrical connections, for example. Trim bushes and tree branches so they don’t hang over the roof and drop bugs in a place where they can crawl through crevices and into the attic.
- Even holes in window screens or a gap between a door and the floor are invitations for pests to walk right into your home.
To the best of your ability, create a barrier anywhere where insects could get in out of the sun. If you do that, you’ll naturally bring your pest population down.
If this seems like a lot to keep up with—and most would agree that it is—contact us at GreenShield Pest Control HERE. We’d love to help!