If you’re seeing more crickets than normal this year, don’t worry. Experts say cricket swarms — thousands of field crickets assembling in one location — may be annoying, but they pass with time.
Wizzie Brown, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service integrated pest management specialist, says the annual phenomenon can be startling, but it’s nothing to fear and only temporary.
“These swarms happen every late summer and fall to some degree,” she said in a release. “The crickets don’t sting or bite, so they’re not doing anything other than being annoying, especially if a male gets in your house and is chirping to attract females.”
Cricket Coincidence
When and where cricket swarms pop up are random, Brown adds. One year you may see incredibly high cricket numbers and the next two years you don’t. The cause of these mass accumulations of field crickets isn’t so random, however.
The cricket cycle is spurred on by cool fronts, because crickets don’t like heat. They hatch in early spring, reach adulthood in three months and, by the heat of summer, are looking for places to stay cool, she explains.
They forage on dead insects and vegetation at night and keep a relatively low profile during the heat of the day. Cool fronts in the waning weeks of summer and early fall change that, Brown says.
They also like to swarm to the light. Buildings with bright, dusk-to-dawn lighting attract them.
“You’ll notice they tend to congregate around the front doors of businesses — at gas stations, car dealerships and other businesses and locations that have highly luminous lighting that is on all night,” Brown says. “If you’ve noticed crickets around your house, it’s probably in relation to lighting.”
Seasonal Swarms
If the numbers of crickets seem outlandish, Brown notes there can be multiple generations of crickets in a year, especially in warmer regions. Warm winters can also contribute to the number of cricket generations per year.
Like most insects, field crickets’ numbers rise, peak and fall seasonally. The window for crickets to gather in mass typically lasts four to six weeks before their numbers begin to decline, she says.
Turning off unnecessary lights can reduce the chance crickets will swarm around your home or business. There are also specialty bulbs that are less attractive to insects.
“Attracting crickets can lead to them getting inside structures and homes, especially with poor sealing around doors and windows,” Brown says. “A bunch of dead crickets can be a stinky mess, so it’s smart to leave the lights off as much as possible as that summer-to-fall transition happens.”
