House, camel and field crickets
Crickets are not dangerous, but a house cricket chirping behind the washing machine at 2 a.m. or a basement crawling with spider-legged camel crickets wears on people fast. A local pest pro can knock the population down and show you why they picked your house.
Most cricket calls in the county involve one of these. They behave differently, so it helps to know which one is in the house.
| House cricket | Camel (cave) cricket | Field cricket | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Looks | Light yellowish brown, about three quarters of an inch, three dark bands across the head | Tan and mottled, humpbacked, no wings, very long hind legs and antennae | Shiny black or dark brown, about an inch, stout body |
| Sound | Loud chirping at night (males) | Silent | Loud chirping, mostly outdoors |
| Where you see it | Laundry rooms, kitchens, near the furnace or water heater | Basements, crawlspaces, sump pits, garages, window wells | Foundations, garages, ground-floor rooms in late summer and fall |
| What it does | Can chew holes in fabric and paper | Mostly a nuisance; jumps toward you when startled | Comes in by the dozens as fields dry or cool off, can chew fabric |
Many of the camel crickets in Northeast basements are actually a non-native Asian species, the greenhouse camel cricket, which has spread widely through homes in the eastern United States.
Sound is the giveaway for house and field crickets. A male calls by rubbing his wings together, and the chirp seems to come from everywhere at once, which is why people spend an hour pulling out the stove and never find him. Chirping that lasts more than a few nights, or comes from more than one room, means you probably have more than one.
Camel crickets don't chirp, so the signs are visual. You find them clustered on basement walls, in the corner behind the oil tank, in the sump pit or stuck in the tub of a utility sink. Turn on the light in a damp unfinished basement and watch the floor, and you will know quickly. Glue boards set along the walls overnight are a good way to gauge how many there are.
Damage is the other clue. Crickets will chew on cotton, wool, silk and synthetic fabrics, especially items stained with sweat or food, plus paper and cardboard. Small irregular holes in clothes stored in a damp basement, or chewed edges on boxes, can point to crickets. If the holes are in wool stored upstairs, see our clothes moth page instead.
Old stone and block cellars in Newburgh, Cornwall and Port Jervis stay cool and humid all year, which is exactly what camel crickets need. Basements along the Hudson Riverfront, the Wallkill and the Delaware rarely dry out without a dehumidifier.
Field crickets breed in pasture, hayfields and the edges of crop land. Homes beside farms around Montgomery, Wawayanda and the Black Dirt fields near Florida see them move toward foundations when fields are cut or the nights turn cold.
Seasonal camps around Greenwood Lake and Orange Lake sit closed and damp for months. Owners often open them up to find camel crickets all over the crawlspace and bathroom.
Leaf-filled window wells, firewood stacked on the porch and stone walls along the house give crickets daytime cover inches from a way inside.
Crickets are drawn to lights. A bright porch fixture next to an unsealed basement door brings them right to the gap.
House crickets ride in on firewood, stored lawn furniture and cardboard boxes brought in from a damp garage or shed.
Lots of crickets usually means lots of spiders
Crickets are prey for cellar spiders, wolf spiders and house centipedes. A basement with heavy camel cricket activity almost always has a healthy population of the things that eat them. Fix the crickets and the moisture, and the spider and centipede problem often shrinks on its own.
Humidity is the single biggest lever, especially with camel crickets. A dehumidifier running in the basement with a hose to the floor drain or sump, set somewhere around 50 percent, makes the space far less welcoming. Fix leaking fittings, seal the sump pit cover and keep the dryer vented outside.
Outside, cut down the hiding spots. Pull mulch and leaf litter back from the foundation, clean out window wells, and stack firewood away from the house. Swap bright white porch bulbs for yellow bug lights or motion-activated fixtures so you aren't calling crickets to the door all night.
Finally, close the gaps. Crickets squeeze under worn garage door seals and basement doors, through gaps at the sill plate and around hose bibs and utility lines. A tube of caulk and new door sweeps go a long way, and the same work keeps out mice in the fall.
Search "cricket exterminator near me" and you will get pages of ads. Call us instead and we will match you with an independent pest control company that works your town, whether that is a camel cricket basement in Cornwall, a lake cottage at Greenwood Lake or a farmhouse outside Pine Bush.
Most cricket jobs are folded into a general spider or perimeter service, so if you are also seeing millipedes or silverfish in the same damp basement, mention it on the call. One visit can usually handle all of them.
Ask for the price of the treatment and any follow-up visits up front so there are no surprises.
No. They have no venom and don't bite people. The jump toward you is a startle reflex, not an attack, even if it doesn't feel that way in a dark basement.
Move slowly toward the sound, because a cricket stops calling when it senses vibration. Check behind appliances, under baseboard heaters and in cluttered corners. If you keep hearing new ones, a sticky trap along the wall works better than a flashlight hunt.
Field crickets mature in late summer, and when fields are mowed or the nights get cold, adults wander toward warm foundations and lights. They usually die off indoors over the winter, but a perimeter treatment stops most of them from getting in.
A handful of field crickets in September is a DIY job. Vacuum them up, put a new sweep on the door and change the porch bulb. A dehumidifier and some sticky traps will handle a light camel cricket problem in a small basement.
Call a pro when the numbers stay high after you have dried the space out, when crickets are in a crawlspace you can't easily get into, or when they are part of a bigger picture with spiders, centipedes and millipedes. Licensed applicators also have access to products and dusts for wall voids that you won't find at the hardware store.
Pick your region or town to see what else local pros deal with there.
Talk with a local exterminator about treatment, sealing and drying things out.
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