Crickets are not something alien. We all have seen them on several occasions in our surroundings. House crickets, camel cricket and cave crickets are the most common species in United States. These small buggers seem to be quite harmless apparently. Are they really harmless or do crickets bite? As every specie of cricket comes with a mouth, so you can’t rule out a tiny-mini cricket bite with small, sharp pain and burn. But that happens out of self-defense only. Let’s find out more about crickets and their bites.
Table of Contents
Different crickets and their bites
1. House cricket bite
These critters are quite capable of biting. But they are not strong enough to damage the human skin. These can be found anywhere from your living room, your garbage bin to your garden.
2. Camel cricket bite
These spider-like crickets look creepy but they can’t sting at all. Unlike other bugs, they don’t have fangs to bite. These are found in the dark corners of your house i.e. basement or garage.
3. Cave cricket bite
They look horrifying but quite contrary to it, they do not bite humans. As the name suggests, these are commonly found in caves or dampen areas like drains or near standing water. But they might crawl into your place any time.
4. Locust bite
Locust is particularly grumpy cricket. Locust bites quite rarely, but when it does, it can be a painful experience. Their bite may cause symptoms like itching and red swollen hands. These are found in the fields and crops and cause real threat to your farms.
5. Banded crickets
Banded crickets are smaller in size and known for their non-aggressive nature. This specie of crickets is more common in southwestern Asia, Europe and UK. These are normally used to feed the pets.
What harm can crickets do?
Read on to find varying types of harms that these tiny pests cause in their surroundings.
1. Bite humans
Crickets are omnivorous bugs with two multipurpose jaws. They normally rely on edibles like plants and other insects. Biting a human is quite possible. But their mouth parts are not strong enough to dig a hole in the surface of human skin. Not all but only a few of cricket’s species (house cricket, black field cricket, Jamaican field cricket, crazy red crickets) are known for their nasty bites. They normally bite, if you are holding them tightly. As far as the intensity of their bite is concerned, it depends on the size of the cricket. The larger crickets bite you more painfully. Their multiple stinging bites and painful pinches may cause you bad skin reaction.
Common symptoms & treatment of cricket bite
Crickets do not transmit any fatal diseases in human. But it might cause minor health-related issues. House cricket is said to carry bacteria (salmonella and E. coli) and parasites in its body. As a result of its bite or even coming in contact to its feces, you may end up with bacterial infection. Some other common symptoms may include;
- skin rash
- sores on your skin
- flu-like symptoms (a less common symptom)
Treatment
In case, a cricket bites you, the first step should be the sanitization of the affected area. Wash your hands with warm water and an antibacterial soap. Next step is to apply a dab of polysporin or any anti-bacterial ointment (with bacitracin). It would cure the sores, hopefully. But if the problem persists and the rash gets redder, get assistance from your doctor. He might prescribe you some antibiotics.
2. Household damage
Besides depriving us of a sound shut eye in the night, severe household damage is what makes crickets deadlier for us. Be it your clothes, furniture, food, walls (wallpaper), carpet or your garden, nothing is protected from these tiny sadists. The only way to cope up with crickets is to try some effective and preventative measures.
3. Do they transmit diseases or not?
Crickets are quite likely to transmit diseases in other animals. Wanna know how? Besides vegetation, crickets get fed on dead and dying insects and their feces. That is why they are always at the risk of ingesting some really harmful pathogens. In case, you have bought any infected cricket to feed your pet, the disease will easily transmit in your pet. Those who have more than one pets, the infection can easily spread from one animal to the other (through their feces or dead skin cells).
How to deal with it?
- Feed your pets with healthy crickets
- Your pet enclosure must be cleaned on daily basis.
- There should be no leftover food (cricket remains) in your pet’s place.
- Make certain that your pets don’t ingest any dead crickets as the dead ones are more likely to have pathogens in them.
- Avoid piling up of cricket’s droppings in your place.
How to get rid of the chirping crickets?
For chucking these buggers out, the first step is to find the main cricket infested areas in your property. Dark and moist places are the most common nestling spots of crickets. Besides that, trash bins are great attractant for these chirping critters.
Lure them out!
The next step for cricket’s removal is to lure them out of their nestling areas.
- Molasses mixture
Molasses has a sweet smell that attracts crickets. Take a shallow bowl and dilute a few spoons of molasses in water. Place it near the nestling area of the crickets. Lured by its smell, soon the bowl will be swarming with dead crickets. If you don’t have molasses, diluting beer in water can also work.
- Sticky glue trap
If you have toddlers or pets in your house, glue board is the best way to lure the nasty buggers (it’s non-toxic). All you need is to place a cornmeal bait on the board. Place the board near offending areas like windows, doorways, walls or under the furniture. Besides that, placing these traps near humid or hot areas would also attract these pests.
Conclusion
To avoid a cricket bite, you must learn to handle them with care. Secondly, prefer to have healthy crickets for your pets. As prevention is the best cure. Furthermore, if you want to get rid of them, you can’t do that in one go. You would have to follow a regular plan and simple measures (as mentioned above) to keep these insects out of your place.