Cricket Outbreak

[Craig Mackay]

Last night I went to bed to find a cricket half way up the bedroom wall. I thought maybe it had escaped my T's tank when I turned my back and decided it was gonna gets its comuppance and offered it to the T and she seemed to sense my annoyance and made short work of it. I thought it was a one off and slept easily but I've caught another couple today and I can hear some chirps coming from behind a bookshelve. They're brown crickets which I thought were silent so I'm a little confused
God knows how they got out. I can't see any damage to the tank they're in and the lids on securely.

Anyways, I was wondering what the best methods to catch the little buggers are. Are the cricket traps you can buy any good or does anyone have any DIY methods?

[Colin D Wilson]

Not sure on the cricket traps matey.

Crickets seem to be able to get out of even the most secure (to us) tank.

As far as catching them....buy yourself a couple of pet rats, wait till they get hand tame and come when you call them (yes you can train them that far) then do what i do...let them out in the room to have a good run around, they find and get rid of everything that scuttles.

[Craig Mackay]

Yeah, a friend of mine used to be able to sit on the ground and say shoulder to his rats and they would climb up and sit on his shoulders. Quite amazing really. Not too keen on rodents though. They seem to like the taste of my fingers, lol! My fiances got a couple of hamsters which are friendly with me but they're a little too old to train now I think.

[Zoltan Mihaly Lestyan]

Don't know how big the room is, but you could try to place a piece or two of vegetables (ie. salad) randomly in the room - or even some dry cat/dogfood - and you might catch them on the food items. I can imagine even a shallow dish with water in it might work too, and they will possibly drown in it.
You can find them in really weird places though. Once at a morning I was getting my trousers on which were on the back-rest of a chair at night and guess what I found in one of the pockets?

[Craig Mackay]

Hehe, I seem to be finding them on curtains and really high up the walls. Its quite a small room so i'll give the veg and water dish a go. Fingers crossed. Thanks

[Nicola Dolby]

I wouldn't be too concerned. Get a camera film pot to catch them in and treat them as your emergency supply! As long as you don't have the problem I've had. A plague of hungry house spiders!

[Faye Sweeney]

The brown crickets are less noisy than blacks, but the males still chirp... back when I had my Berber skink, I used to feed all the males first!
as long as there is nowhere damp for the females to insert their ovipositers, I think they'd have trouble breeding successfully, so things shouldn't get too bad!

[Nicola Dolby]

I know that's the theory Faye, but crickets are really resourceful so-and-sos. They're really good at finding bathrooms etc!

[James Box]

i have lost loads of crickets, the worst recently was one blatantly in the wall, i think based on the volume it was a black cricket. the browns however are still loud enough!
thankfully the one in the wall shut up, so either it's left or died.
i caught three or four over the past few days, and even one this morning that was in the clothes i was going to wear! caught it and fed it to the pulchra, who never passes up a meal.

Colin, you advertising rats now? that sounds like a great trick for catching loose bugs! have to have a think about that

Virginia Cheeseman has cricket traps advertised on her site, though i don't know how they work...

[Colin D Wilson]

I'm sure Uncle James would be able to persuade Jessie to give up a couple !!!

[Craig Mackay]

As far as I'm aware the traps are sticky bits of card that have some kind of scent or something that attracts them to it like food. Then they get stuck to them. Hopefully it'll keep them alive so you can save them.
I've found them in 3 rooms so far. They don't waste time getting about! Not found any in the bathroom yet. I'll keep my eyes out for them.
I guess escapees is all part and parcel of the hobby

[Matthew Baines]

Our old house was rife with crickets , the landlord had too get the house fumigated after we left he wasn't happy but i hated his guts anyway so i was happy.
We use a large piece of gaffer tape with cricket food on it and it works wonders cheaper than buying traps and just as if not more affective!
It doesnt really bother us about them being around the house because we are used too the racket the crickets make and we like too think we are living in the jungle anyway! And my h. gigas that escaped might still be about so it can get them and eat them if it is.

[Craig Mackay]

we like too think we are living in the jungle anyway!

Too true, glad I'm not the only one that liked to imagine that

Haven't seen or heard anything tonight so hopefully the few that got out have died off or moved on.

[Guy Edwards]

Hey Craig,

The cricket traps do work, I would put a blob of something more smelly on the middle of the pad though. peanut butter works a treat.

if every one is giving innovative ideas, here is one that a pal of mine used, he swears it worked. shallow dish of water, surrounded by a thick, and i do mean thick ring of polyfiller. crickets eat the yummy starchy polyfiller....mmmm, then feel really thirsty. whats that over the polyfiller dune...an oasis of water, slurp slurp slurp, of said cricket toodles off on it's nightly jaunt. the poly filler sets inside the cricket, i will leave the rest to your imagination.

another one is the old wasp trap with a ladder. jam jar with a water and honey mix. like several drops of honey to a 1/4 jar of water. make sure the honey is dissolved in the water. then provide a secure cardboard ramp up to the top of the jar. it is critical that the ramp butts on to the skirting. crickets and other escapees tend to hug the edges of the room. cricket attracted by the smell / blunders into the cardboard ramp and climbs. reaches the slippery rim of the jar and falls in and drowns. i would improve the cricket trap with a band of vaseline or similar on the inner rim of the jar.

good luck "big game" hunting,

best,

Guy

[Craig Mackay]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I just caught the male thats been chirping all night. He'd made his way to the living room and I caught him behind the sofa. I've noticed they only seem to chirp when they escape, hehe. Guess they don't need to in the tank when they're with all the females. Hopefully thats the last of them. No doubt there'll be a few more though. I figured out how they were getting out the tank and Ive (hopefully!) put an end to it.