Fun And Fascinating Facts About The Texas Cricket
We’ve all been there before: you’ve had a long day, and you finally crawl into bed, ready to drift off to sleep when you hear it. A single cricket is chirping loudly somewhere in your bedroom. You get up and try to find it, but it’s nowhere to be seen. Then you hear another in the next room, and one further down the hall. Looks like you have an infestation. But how much do you really know about these pesky little bugs? And what can you do to keep them out of your Texas home?
How Crickets Make Their Music
The process by which crickets “sing” is called “stridulation,” meaning the sound is made when crickets rub parts of their bodies together. Male crickets have a file-like, ridged vein located at the bottom of their front wings. Crickets will scrape this vein against the top of the wing opposite, creating a sound vibration that is amplified by the wing’s thin membranes.
Crickets Have a Short Life Span
Most cricket species only live for about 30 to 90 days.
Why They Are Called Crickets
The word cricket is thought to be an onomatopoeia, meaning a word that mimics the sound it describes and comes from an old French word criquet.
Only Male Crickets Sing
Female crickets don’t have the same vein and wing structure that allows male crickets to chirp.
Crickets Can Get Sick Too
Just like us, crickets can catch diseases and viruses. In recent years, the deadly cricket paralytic virus has had a big impact on the commercial cricket industry. The disease causes crickets to become paralyzed and eventually die, leading to the closure of half of the largest cricket breeding farms in the United States.
Crickets are Edible
Although people in the United States aren’t used to eating insects, crickets are considered a delicacy and a food staple in many places throughout the world. Crickets are high in vital nutrients like protein and calcium and have even been turned into a variety of foods like flour.
Crickets Have An Amazing Sense of Hearing
A cricket’s hearing organs are extremely sensitive to vibrations. These organs are located on the insect’s legs and can pick up even the smallest tremor caused by human footsteps. This is why when you try to find a cricket, it stops chirping. Crickets know that the best way for them to stay safe is to keep silent.
Crickets Have a Favorite Food
Crickets mainly scavenge for their food, eating fungi and rotting plants. Occasionally, a cricket will even eat a dead or dying cricket, making them an omnivorous species.
What is the Purpose Behind a Cricket’s Chirps
Although the chirping of cricket might seem unnecessary and annoying to us, crickets chirp and sing for a variety of reasons and even in different pitches and notes depending on the species. Most often, crickets chirp to attract a mate or to defend their territory against rival crickets.
Crickets Are a Huge Business
Commercial cricket breeders can make a lot of money providing bugs to pet reptile owners and breeders, creating a multi-million dollar business in the United States alone.
Cricket Chirps Can Tell the Temperature
Using a mathematical equation discovered by Amos E. Dolbear in 1897, you can calculate how warm or cold it is outside by counting the number of cricket chirps you hear in a specific span of time. Dolbear’s Law has even been adapted to different species of crickets. In general, the warmer the temperature, the more frequently crickets will chirp. To get a rough estimate, count the number of chirps you hear in 14 seconds and then add 40 to get the temperature in Fahrenheit.
Crickets Can Jump Very High
In one leap, crickets can move up to 20 or even 30 times their body length.
Crickets Aren’t Typically Social
Although during an infestation it may seem like you have large numbers of crickets in your home, crickets are usually solitary creatures. These insects don’t usually care for their young, and when crickets do get together, they are either mating or fighting. If you do see a group of crickets, it’s called an orchestra!
Call Gro Lawn To Keep Crickets Out Of Your Texas House
If you have a problematic cricket infestation, or you want to prevent one from happening in your Fort Worth area home, call the professionals at Gro Lawn. We offer a perimeter pest control service that keeps unwelcome guests including crickets, ants, spiders, and many other creepy crawlies from doing damage to you, your family, your pets, and even your house. Our perimeter pest control service aims to create a secure border around your house that stops insects in their tracks. Instead of trying to seal up every tiny crack and crevice that can let bugs in, this border is convenient, non-invasive, effective, invisible, and, most importantly, safe for your family, your furry friends, and the plants around your house.
You can visit our website to view more details about our perimeter pest control options, as well as all of our other lawn and garden care services. Feel free to reach out via our contact form for more information or to request a free estimate.. Be sure to check out our blog for more informative articles on caring for your lawn and home, and like our Facebook page to stay up to date with everything going on at Gro Lawn.