Crickets, including species like the field, house, and mole cricket, are common garden inhabitants. These insects present a complex duality, acting as both beneficial members of the ecosystem and potential pests. Understanding this dual nature is key for a gardener, as it determines whether their presence is an asset or requires management. Their role is not a simple “good” or “harmful” answer, but rather a matter of population density and the specific species involved.
The Beneficial Role of Crickets in the Garden Ecosystem
Crickets perform an important ecological function in the garden, largely acting as scavengers or detritivores. They consume decaying plant material, fallen leaves, dead insects, and fungal spores, helping to clean the garden floor of debris. This decomposition activity prevents the garden from becoming overwhelmed with organic waste.
The breakdown of this organic material contributes directly to nutrient cycling, converting waste into valuable nutrients released back into the soil. Cricket burrowing activity also helps to aerate the soil, improving water infiltration and root growth. Furthermore, their manure is an organic fertilizer that enhances soil fertility.
Crickets also serve a significant role in the garden’s food web, providing a food source for a variety of beneficial predators. Birds, frogs, lizards, spiders, and ground beetles rely on crickets as part of their diet. By supporting these predators, crickets indirectly contribute to the natural suppression of other potential garden pests.
Understanding Cricket Damage to Plants and Seedlings
Although often beneficial, crickets can switch to feeding on living plant tissue when populations become too large or decaying matter is scarce. They primarily target young, tender plants, making newly sprouted seedlings especially vulnerable. Field crickets, for example, chew through the stems of young plants, sometimes severing them completely at the soil line, similar to damage caused by cutworms.
Mole crickets, distinct from field or house crickets, cause damage through both feeding and extensive tunneling. They burrow just beneath the soil surface, which damages roots and pushes up the soil around plants, leading to desiccation. Mole crickets also directly consume roots and tubers, putting crops like potatoes and radishes at risk.
Field and house crickets also feed on soft plant tissue, including ground-resting fruits like tomatoes and strawberries, chewing irregular holes into them. When examining damaged leaves, cricket feeding leaves ragged edges and holes, distinguishable from the slime trails of slugs or the symmetrical cuts of caterpillars. Significant damage only occurs when cricket populations reach infestation levels, signaling that intervention is necessary.
Population Management Strategies
Managing cricket populations effectively involves making the garden less hospitable without resorting to broad-spectrum chemicals. A primary strategy involves reducing their preferred daytime hiding spots. This is achieved by removing piles of debris, keeping grass mowed, clearing excessive mulch, and weeding regularly, which eliminates the dark, moist shelter they seek.
Simple, non-toxic trapping methods can help reduce local numbers when populations are high. A shallow container buried near the soil line and filled with molasses and water, or beer, acts as a pitfall trap that attracts and captures crickets. Another physical method is using diatomaceous earth, a fine, abrasive powder that causes crickets to dehydrate, applied to frequently seen areas.
Encouraging natural predators is a long-term solution for population control; avoid removing spiders and provide shelter to attract frogs and lizards. For vulnerable seedlings, physical exclusion is highly effective, involving placing row covers or fine mesh netting over the plants to create a barrier. Using yellow or low-pressure sodium vapor lamps outdoors can also help, as standard white lights attract crickets.