Using Natural Cricket Repellents to Get Rid of Them

1 year ago
by Heather Whitney

Content:

The little chirping sounds in your attic or basement may sound cute for the first few days, but by the end of the week, anyone will be at their wit’s end trying to get rid of these little insects. While some people may see a little humor in having crickets around for bad jokes, others will be looking for the nearest natural cricket repellent.

Many people often wonder why these tiny crickets even bother to enter their home or how they managed to get in their house in the first place. Crickets are useful for a portion of food and other tasks but usually, that is outside in the garden not under the kitchen sink, or hopping around in the darkest corners of your home.

While these little guys might not seem harmful at first, they can carry many diseases. Crickets are capable of biting but typically they are more likely to bite their enemies and prey and not humans. A cricket can cause sores should you accidentally become exposed to their feces and/or actually get bitten. These sores are not fatal and usually clear up over time.

Crickets are a problem when it comes to foodborne illnesses. Should they invade your home they will often go for your food storage first and anywhere else they can get sustenance and a water source. Like any other pests, crickets can be fairly hard to get rid of with just natural cricket repellents.

With this cricket repelling guide you will be able to figure out the species of your local cricket mafia, how to use natural cricket repellents effectively in your home, yard, and/or garden, information about these little crickets, and other tips forwarding those hopping pest for good.

Crickets: Playing the World’s Tiniest Violin Just for You

Crickets are some of the most interesting insects right next to spiders, ladybugs, and scorpions. While you may think cricket is just for the local swamps and ponds, crickets can be found anywhere there is enough humidity, a food source, and a water source. There are over 900 species of these little hopping insects and they aren’t afraid to invade whenever they feel like it.

Most crickets come in a small range of colors. Typically, they are a variation of browns, pale tans, blacks, and greens. These little hopping insects are a distant cousin to the other garden hopper – the grasshopper. While crickets are considered a minor pest they can prove to be quite a nuisance in large numbers.

Crickets play a decent role in nature’s ecosystems. They are both predators and prey. They are food for the local birds, toads, lizards, snakes, and frogs. They are also great to plant defenders against aphids and other garden pests.

Depending on the species, temperatures, and time of day you will often hear a wide variety of cricket sounds. So why do they call it chirping? Crickets don’t make noises in the same way as mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians do.

They do what most insect species often do, use a body part and make some vibrations. For the cricket, specifically the males, they use their long ribbed legs and rub them against their forewing creating that well-known tune.

These little vibrations are important to cricket since it helps them find mates, fight off their competition, and do other purposes.

While these garden musicians aren’t like the cute little peacock spider or the buzzing cicadas, they can give you a rather soothing concert during the warmer months.

Typically you won’t hear crickets once temperatures start to drop and the world becomes dark and chilly. This is because these little insects hate the cold about as much as any other creature.

Causes for a Cricket Colony Invading Your Home, Garden and Yard

While it is a common occurrence during colder months, crickets can sneak into your home when it is warm too. If your yard experiences any level of flooding, crickets will then seek shelter in your home.

If your home provides an adequate place to hide, plenty of food, and a nice reliable water source, you may end up having a cricketing family in the hundreds on your hands.

Crickets like nice damp places to hide. This means your bathroom, kitchen, damp places in the attic, basement, near the water heater, near your washing machine, and anywhere else that has damp enough conditions will attract crickets, among other things.

You may often see crickets hop along with your floors, crawl under baseboards, in between cracks, and around windows as well. Leave a window or door open for too long and you may as well send a written invitation to any and all pests, including the common cricket.

Crickets are fairly omnivorous in nature and are known scavengers of the insect world. They will eat plenty of smaller insects such as aphids, vegetables, fruits, and even meat. They love rotting vegetation and won’t hesitate to dig their mandibles into your favorite curtains, books, pet food, and more. Talk about an opportunistic appetite!

So if you have any of these food sources lying around you will end up attracting possibly more than just pesky crickets.

camel cricket

Now that you have an idea of their favorite hiding spots and food sources, you can move on to the final component of cricket attraction – an open water source.

While ponds, rivers, swamps, streams, and lakes are all contenders for a cricket colony, they aren’t the only sources a cricket will rely on. Crickets will go wherever they can get at least a consistent few drops of water.

Any leaky taps/faucets, leaky water heaters, water from washing machines, leaky plumbing, damp basements, leaky attics, water-filled buckets, leaky outside hoses, birdbaths, pools, spas/hot tubs, puddles in your yard or garage, and damp soil, are all sources of water for a cricket.

Cricket Species

Like cockroaches, there are four major species of crickets that don’t understand the meaning of staying outside. The nuisance cricket quartet is the mole cricket, field cricket, house cricket, and last but not least the camel cricket.

  • The Mole Cricket
    While these guys might not invade your home, they will invade your yard and garden. They are known destroyers of lawns and gardens everywhere. They are usually dark brown with a slight sheen, have a yellowish underbelly, and will burrow deep into the soil. They don’t have the elongated hind legs like their fellow cricket species.
    These crickets are known pests in the United States, Australia, and even all over Europe.
  • The Field Cricket
    Dark brownish in color these little crickets tend to like eating vegetation and dead animals. They typically live in tall grass, fields, and piles of lawn debris. They are harmless and can be quite skittish around humans and large animals. This species is more a nuisance and not so much a threat to your home, garden or yard.
    In fact, they are rather beneficial to the environment.
  • The House Cricket
    The real culprit of cricket home invasion. These crickets are fairly loud little chirpers and can live for quite a bit of time. These crickets are a yellowish brown and have three little dark crossbands on their heads. They love warm, humid areas which are why they never hesitate to enter homes. They can be found all over the United States.
  • The Camel Cricket
    One of the creepiest cricket species of all time. Camel crickets look like a hybrid between spiders and crickets. They love to live in basements, attics, sheds, and anywhere else that provides a warm, humid shelter. They are a mix of browns and black in color.
    They may not bite you but these crickets are known to jump on your in self-defense.

How to Effectively Use Natural Cricket Repellents

While you may have read a bunch of comments on how natural cricket repellents don’t work, it is usually because people didn’t use them properly. A natural cricket repellent can work if you use it where you need it most. Typically, you should use natural cricket repellents near cricket nests.

Targeting the cricket’s nests will help cut down on their populations and irritate them enough to stay away. This is usually the best method for any insect pest, always take the fight to the source.

When you combine different natural cricket repellents with proper home maintenance and lawn care you can keep these little hoppers out of your home until next summer.
Crickets aren’t afraid to come back so you will have to be vigilant and keep up with other cricket prevention methods.

How to Keep Crickets Out of Your Home

leaf pile

While it may seem impossible at first and a lot of work, there are plenty of ways you can prevent a colony of crickets from entering your home or invading your lovely yard or garden.

1.) Clean up your yard, garden, and home of all debris, leaf piles, old furniture, and so on.

2.) Seal up all cracks, crevices, and leaking areas in your yard, garden, home, and shed

3.) Keep your drains clean and make sure your gutters are clear as well.

4.) Move all firewood and compost piles away from your home.

5.) Shear all shrubs, bushes, and even trees. Make sure to keep your grass cut often.

6.) Keep your garbage cans closed with a lid.

4 Best Methods for Getting Rid of Crickets Naturally

When it comes to picking out the best natural cricket repellents, you want something that not only works but isn’t going to cost you much to use. After all, pesticides, certain types of remedies like natural oils, and others can cost a pretty penny.

Each of these methods is not only a great natural cricket repellent but also cost-efficient.

1.) Slower than molasses

Use one part molasses to ten parts water in a small bowl. Place the bowl near the cricket’s nest.

They will be attracted to the sweet taste and end up drowning in the bowl. Make sure to clear out the dead crickets as often as possible.

2.) Sprinkle some diatomaceous earth around high traffic areas

This is the best organic insect killer on the market.

It will ward off crickets by making the area too dry for them while also handling any other garden pest that dares to enter your home.

3.) Grow some nitrogen-fixing plants in your yard, garden, or around your home

garlic growing

Garlic, cloves, and even sweet peas are all great to eat. They can be grown easily in your garden.

For extra home defense, try to grow some garlic inside your home and keep your pots near the windows. Crickets are easily irritated by these plants and will refuse to go near them.

4.) Bring in the spicy chili peppers for your homemade bug spray brew

If you are up for burning those pesky crickets with some pepper spray, you can use one of many pepper spray recipes for insect repellent. All you need is some chili powder, some red hot chili sauce, and some water.

Mix it all together and let it sit overnight. Once you have your brew, add some soap and let it sit near your little cricket’s favorite hiding places.
While you can spray this stuff on plants, beware that the soap might do some damage to certain plant varieties.

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