Cricket, eliminate it in case of excess

Crickets are black or brown insects measuring more than 13 mm long. Their heads have long antennae, two compound eyes and mouthpieces, a shredder with powerful mandibles. The thorax carries the locomotion organs, three pairs of legs and two pairs of very ribbed wings.

The forewings are rather tough. They serve as a protective case for the membrane hind wings, folded into a fan at rest. Of the three pairs of legs, the posterior is the most remarkable, because it is specialized for jumping.

Its femur is particularly strong. The abdomen ends with two sensory filaments.

The female is distinguished from the male by the presence of the ovipositeur, a long cylindrical-shaped egg-laying organ located between the two hoops.

Lifecycle:

Adult crickets mate after a sexual parade. The male then emits a spermatophore, a whitish, drop-shaped gelatinous envelope that contains sperm. He places it under the female’s genital opening.

After a few seconds, the female tears it apart to release the sperm that then migrate inside her reproductive organs.

A few days later, the female finds a suitable place to lay eggs. She carefully pushes her ovipositeur into the soil and lays her eggs. The laying of a hundred eggs is spread over several days.

After incubation of the eggs, which vary in duration depending on the species and the conditions of the environment, tiny crickets are born similar to adults but without wings.

Cricket is an insect with incomplete metamorphosis, or hemimetole. During their growth, young crickets undergo several moults that allow them to grow and reach the adult stage, with full wings and functional reproductive organs.

Habitat:

Domestic cricket,as the name suggests, usually lives in homes and other human constructions. It is often found where the temperature is high, such as in heating pipes and behind radiators and heaters.

He loves bakeries and can even set up shop in metro stations, as was already the case in Paris. In hot weather, it is found outdoors, where it mainly frequents dumps and other piles of garbage. This cricket must spend the winter indoors to survive.

Spring cricket and fall cricket frequent fields, roadsides and land adjoining houses, where they also sometimes enter.

Power:

These omnivorous insects feed on:

• Leaves
• Seeds
• Fruit
• Insects
• food debris,
• Peelings
• cooked meat,
• baked goods.

Special Behaviour

Crickets are among the best known of song insects. Who hasn’t heard their characteristic song on a beautiful summer evening? This sound phenomenon is called stridulation. It is the exclusive attribute of male crickets.

To streak, most crickets lift their upper wings at an angle of about 45 degrees relative to their bodies. They then rub the inner edges of the wings very quickly against each other, like a bow that would vibrate part of the other wing. Both wings have special structures to create and amplify sounds. The space created between the raised wings and the insect’s body is also a sounding board for stridulation.

During breeding season, the male domestic cricket can sing for several hours. An individual has already produced 4,200 pulses in four hours!
Crickets are considered jump specialists. The heavily muscular femurs of their hind legs contain elastin, a substance that allows insects to leap over long distances.

Control methods

Although noisy, domestic crickets do not usually cause damage.

Traps can be made to capture them using small containers filled with beer, sweet vinegar, or a mixture of molasses and vanilla essence or lemon juice with water. Attracted by these liquids, crickets will drown. Then all you have to do is get rid of it. Sticky hatches sold in hardware stores are also useful.

To prevent crickets from entering your home, especially towards the end of summer:

• Keep the doors closed.
• plug cracks;
• Remove organic debris around the house
• Reduce evening lighting
• Avoid excess moisture in different parts of your home.

If one of the three species of domestic crickets is in the event of an outbreak in Quebec, contact an exterminator.