Crickets in Minnesota - Falls Creek Animal & Pest Control

Common Minnesota Cricket

Crickets, family Gryllidae (also known as "true crickets"), are insects somewhat related to grasshoppers

and more closely related to katydids or bush crickets (family Tettigoniidae). They have somewhat

flattened bodies and long antennae. There are about 900 species of crickets. They tend to be nocturnal

and are often confused with grasshoppers because they have a similar body structure including jumping

hind legs.

Crickets are omnivores and scavengers feeding on organic materials, as well as decaying plant material,

fungi, and some seedling plants. Crickets also have been known to eat their own dead when there is no

other source of food available, and even exhibit predatorial behavior on other weakened or dead crickets. Crickets have relatively powerful jaws, and have been known to bite humans, mostly without breaking the skin. The bite can, however, be painful when inflicted on sensitive skin such as the webbing between fingers.

They mate in late summer and lay their eggs in the fall. The eggs hatch in the spring and have been estimated to number as high as 2,000 per fertile female. Subspecies Acheta Domestica however lays eggs almost continually, with the females capable of laying at least twice a month. Female crickets have a long needlelike egg-laying organ called an ovipositor. Crickets are popular as a live food source for carnivorous pets like frogs, lizards, tortoises, salamanders, and spiders. Feeding crickets with nutritious food in order to pass the nutrition onto animals that eat them is known as gut loading. In addition to this, the crickets are often dusted with a mineral supplement powder to ensure complete nutrition to the pet. Crickets are also eaten by humans in some African and Asian cultures, where they are often considered a delicacy. There have been movements to promote the eating of insects in Western countries because of high protein content, often with little success as most Western people are naturally repulsed by insects.

Crickets, like all other insects, are cold-blooded. They take on the temperature of their surroundings. Many characteristics of cold-blooded animals, like the rate at which crickets chirp, or the speed at which ants walk, follow a special equation called the Arrhenius equation. This equation describes the activation energy or threshold energy required to induce a chemical reaction. For instance, crickets, like all other organisms, have many chemical reactions occurring within their bodies. As the temperature rises, it becomes easier to reach a certain activation or threshold energy, and chemical reactions, like those that occur during the muscle contractions used to produce chirping, happen more rapidly. As the temperature falls, the rate of chemical reactions inside the crickets' bodies slow down, causing characteristics, such as chirping, to also slow down.