Crickets are common insects recognized for their distinctive chirping sounds, particularly from males seeking mates. While often found in outdoor environments, they can sometimes enter homes, becoming a disturbance. Understanding what attracts crickets indoors is key to managing their presence and creating an environment less appealing to them.
What Draws Crickets In
Crickets are omnivorous, consuming both plant and animal matter, which influences their attraction to certain areas. Their diet in the wild includes decaying organic material like leaves, wood, and even other insects. Indoors, they readily feed on items like food crumbs, pet food left out, and also damage fabrics made of cotton, wool, or silk, along with paper products. Compost piles and uncovered garbage bins outdoors provide ample food sources, making these areas highly attractive.
Moisture is another strong attractant for crickets, as their exoskeletons make them vulnerable to dehydration. They seek damp, humid locations. Indoor areas providing moisture include leaky pipes, wet basements, and humid crawl spaces. Outdoor spots with standing water or poor drainage also draw crickets in.
Crickets prefer secluded, dark, cool places for shelter from predators and harsh weather. Outdoors, this includes tall grass, dense vegetation, woodpiles, and rock formations. Indoors, they hide in cracks within foundations, behind baseboards, and within cluttered areas like piles of boxes or laundry. As outdoor temperatures cool, especially in autumn, crickets often seek warmth in homes and other structures.
Certain cricket species, like house crickets, exhibit phototaxis, meaning they are drawn to light. Bright artificial light sources act as beacons, helping them navigate. These insects often accumulate around outdoor lights, porch lamps, or windows, increasing the likelihood of them entering a home. While many are attracted to light, some species, like camel crickets, do not show this preference.
Keeping Crickets Away
Managing food sources deters crickets from entering or lingering around homes. Regularly cleaning food crumbs and storing pantry and pet food in sealed containers eliminates indoor dietary options. Outdoors, maintain compost piles effectively and ensure garbage cans are clean with tight-fitting lids, reducing access to decaying organic matter.
Controlling moisture also reduces cricket attraction. Promptly repairing any leaky faucets or pipes addresses immediate water sources. Improving drainage around foundations and using dehumidifiers in damp areas like basements and crawl spaces reduces the humidity crickets need to thrive. Ensuring proper ventilation in moist indoor spaces further discourages their presence.
Reducing shelter spots inside and outside homes makes areas less inviting for crickets. Clearing clutter from garages, basements, and indoor living spaces removes many hiding spots. Outdoors, keeping lawns trimmed short and dense vegetation, like bushes and shrubs, cut back from the house eliminates harborage. Moving woodpiles, rock piles, and other debris at least 15 to 20 feet away from the home also removes accessible shelters.
Adjusting outdoor lighting also reduces cricket presence, particularly for light-attracted species. Turning off exterior lights when not needed minimizes their draw. Replacing standard white bulbs with yellow or sodium vapor (amber) lights is effective, as these types of illumination are less appealing to many insects, including crickets. Additionally, closing blinds and curtains at night prevents indoor light from spilling outside, which can otherwise attract them to windows and doors.