An integral part of pest control in New Jersey is cricket control. Crickets produce annoying chirping noises, especially during summer and early fall evenings. These noises can be particularly unwanted when you’re trying to enjoy a nice, peaceful summer afternoon or evening in your backyard or inside your home. While primarily nuisance pests, crickets can sometimes make their way into your house. Once there, they often feed on clothes and carpeting, causing expensive property damage.
In this blog, we’ll show you what to look for to know if you have a cricket infestation, why they make those incessant noises, and some DIY tricks to help control the cricket population. If you have a cricket problem, don’t wait until there’s property damage and unwanted loud noises at night keeping you awake. Call Heritage Pest Control today.
How To Tell If You Are Dealing With A Cricket Infestation
The most clear-cut way to know that you have a cricket infestation on your hands is plain and simple; cricket sightings. Aside from that, the sound that crickets make, known as stridulation, is a telltale sign. That noise tends to happen in the summer months and is more prevalent in the evenings. In addition to observing sightings and sounds, when crickets make their way into our homes, they often feed on our garments. Unfortunately, if you have a true cricket infestation in your New Jersey home, they will likely destroy some of your clothing and cloth furnishings.
Why Do Crickets Make That Sound
What is more of a nuisance than the sounds crickets make? It is loud and annoying and always happens at the most inconvenient times when we are trying to relax in our homes or enjoy some summer fun in the backyard.
That chirping noise that is only irritating to us is known as stridulation. Do female crickets chirp? Nope. Only male crickets make the noise by rubbing their front wings together. It serves several important purposes:
- Male crickets make this sound to impress female crickets. This sound is much more common during mating season in late summer through early fall.
- Crickets use stridulation to call other crickets.
- Crickets use this sound as a sign of aggression toward rivals.
Since crickets are nocturnal insects, these loud noises are much more common in the evening. During this time, crickets may be wooing potential mates, communicating with each other, or trying to fend off aggressors. Warmer temperatures tend to result in louder and more frequent chirping. As the mating season picks up in the warmer summer months, the sounds crickets make, especially at night, can be quite loud and annoying in New Jersey.
DIY Cricket Control Tips For New Jersey Homes
Not only are crickets a nuisance, but if they get into your home, they will cause damage to garments and carpeting. That’s why it’s important to understand your DIY options to try to control the crickets yourself. Here are some helpful tips for how to get rid of crickets outside and inside the home:
- Keep your grass trimmed.
- Try molasses traps.
- Use diatomaceous earth.
- Remove access points to the house.
- Attract natural predators to your property, like birds.
These are all simple methods for preventing different types of crickets from inhabiting your property and killing them should they seriously start infesting your home.
The Best Way To Keep Crickets Out Of Your Home For Good
In addition to the nifty DIY tricks you can try to employ to get rid of crickets, the far and away best approach is to call the professionals at Heritage Pest Control. Founded in 1989, Heritage Pest Control has become the go-to source for all cricket control needs. We focus on environmentally sound practices, disturbing the local wildlife as little as possible while still achieving your extermination goals. We offer same day and next day service. We will come to your home, conduct a thorough inspection to find the root cause of your cricket infestation, and institute a plan to eradicate it once and for all.