It’s that time of year. Cricket time. The little fellows which normally find refuge beneath leaves and garbage cans somehow manage to sneak inside. If you see one, you have to catch it and let it free outside. It’s bad luck to kill a cricket and in this year of the China Virus, who needs more bad luck?
Crickets are second cousins-once-removed from grasshoppers, but there are almost a thousand different species of the small, black insects. In many cultures, they are a sign of good luck, just like Jiminy in Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio”. Apparently, those in Asia aren’t aware of the luck thing because they eat crickets, deep-fried mostly. So do most animals and birds, but not deep fried. Crickets are rich in protein.
Crickets come indoors for three reasons – food, shelter and light. What food? Other insects. They eat small spiders and any organic matter they can find. We have one cricket variety that loves to squeeze beneath our doors and that is the common camel cricket or spider cricket. They are large, brown crickets with extra-long legs and they can jump like Michael Jordan. The girls in my family are petrified of these harmless insects. They will squash them in a New York minute.
Crickets that behave themselves and stay outside often hide among foliage or under objects such as rocks, paver stones, lumber or garbage cans. They venture inside your home when normal nighttime temperatures drop, usually as autumn is approaching. Nighttime light is another big attractant for crickets. Scientists aren’t exactly sure why many nocturnal insects are drawn draw them in.
Crickets as we remember from “Pinocchio” love to sing. Jiminy did the beautiful ballad “When You Wish Upon a Star” in his enchanting tenor voice. Common crickets love to chirp, but only the males can “sing.” To make their chirping noises, the males scrape their wings together and generate the chirp, a sound that is magnified by another part of the wing.
Crickets are absolutely harmless and their lovely songs remind us that summer is over and winter on the way.