What eat crickets house

House cricket - synanthropic species, a close relative cockroach, causing sympathy in many people. In fairness, sympathy causes cricket singingbut its appearance may frighten an unprepared person. The motherland of the species is Eurasia. But with a man home cricket mastered the North American continent and a bit of Australia. In Australia, he confined himself to the city of Adelaide, where the dependent household was originally introduced.It is very likely that the Australian climate prevented the home cricket from spreading all over the continent.

Appearance

Home cricket resembles a massive grasshopper of medium size with a straight line of the back.

• In ordinary grasshoppers wings folded house. Crickets have three pairs of paws. The latter, like that of grasshoppers, is long and can push a domestic cricket upwards. But he does not use his “catapult” to make jumps. This pair of paws is needed by an insect only to throw its body upwards, where it can spread its wings for flight.
• Crickets fly very well.
• An additional similarity with the grasshopper is a cricket attached to the mechanism for singing, also located on the hind legs.
• The head is large. It has a pair of large faceted eyes.
• Mouth apparatus of the gnawing type.

Long cerci, located at the end of the abdomen, give an awesome look to a homemade cricket. They cause an association with the stings. But homemade crickets are harmless insects. In the female between the cerks there is a long (11-15 mm) egg-deposit. The length of the cricket's body is 1.5-2.5 cm. The color of the cricket's body varies from yellowish to brown.

The photo of the house cricket, taken from above, gives an idea of ​​what this human companion looks like.

Cricket life

Lifestyle

Crickets are active at night. So much loved by singing males publish when courting a female or scaring rivals. Happy hiding in secluded places. In the summer, insects prefer natural habitat, hiding in wet crevices or minks.

On a note!

Domestic crickets can not live and breed in dry areas.

Females lay their eggs in a wet substrate in the crevices of trees or stones. The number of eggs laid by one female per season depends on the ambient temperature. The usual amount is from 40 to 180, but at temperatures above 28 ° C, the number of eggs laid can exceed 700.

For the winter, crickets move to homes and warm, wet rooms, including heated basements and heating plant lines. When the air temperature is above 21 ° C, a cricket in the house can continue its livelihoods in the winter.

Interesting!

There is a sign that the appearance of a cricket in the house is fortunate. For this reason, some people deliberately bring insects home from the street.But for a long time to enjoy singing will not work, it interferes with sleep. Therefore, people prefer get rid of crickets in the apartment. The life span of a domestic cricket in the imago stage is 3 months.

Diet

Nymphs and adults in nature feed on plant food. If the cricket lives in the house, he eats mostly liquid food. But it can also feed on decaying organic matter and even cannibalism. Adults need protein supplements, so they catch small invertebrates and eat soft cadaveric tissues. Can catch and eat young relatives.

Human relationship

Cricket

Very difficult topic for cricket. In Japan, it was customary to keep these insects at home in miniature cages. In Asia, they are specially bred for food, in North America they are used as bait. In Russia today, many lovers of exotic animals contain reptiles from those who eat crickets. The owners of these cold-blooded animals, along with reptiles, usually breed crickets for pet food.

If a cricket started up in a high-rise building in the center of a city, you can be sure: he ran away from an amateur of domestic reptiles.Much less often such shoots are made from insect lovers due to the fact that crickets also prefer to keep exotic.

On a note!

There is nothing terrible if this insect settled in the dwelling. Although it is related to cockroaches and can eat similar food, there is no damage from it. The "Night Grasshopper" is neutral. He does not bring harm or good. Except for night singing, which can interfere with sleep.

How to get rid

If the cricket in the house was not fortunately, but to insomnia, and yes even managed to breed, you will have to get rid of the uninvited guests. Here it will be appropriate to recall that biologically - these are cockroaches with similar requirements for habitat and food. You can poison them with chemicals, arrange sticky traps and try to expel crickets with folk remedies. But the first thing to do is to stop them “feeding”:

1. There should be no open trash bins, uncleaned crumbs and food residue on the table.
2. It is necessary to monitor the cranes so that water does not drip out of them.
3. If the house has a basement, you need to check whether there are damp places.
4. All the cracks through which an insect can enter the house need to be repaired.Hang mosquito nets on windows.

For private houses and apartments on the ground floors, cutting greenery under the window will be a prerequisite. The owners of a private house need to place the compost pits in the farthest corner of the plot, as the cricket lives in nature just in such wet places full of rotting organic matter.

Farm at home

Breeding crickets

There is the opposite side of the coin. Fishermen and reptile lovers are often forced to independently breed these insects at home in terrariums. Not every reptile agrees to eat frozen dead food, and the cost of such feed at the pet store can ruin lovers of rare animals.

On a note!

These insects do not have seasonal activity, therefore, in the presence of favorable conditions, a cricket at home is able to breed year-round. This greatly helps the owners of terrariums.

The optimal combination of insects - 1 male to 5 females. When the males are oversupplied, fierce fights arise between them, which leads to injuries among the producers. A male who has lost its elytra is unable to produce mating trills and becomes unsuitable for reproduction.

Females provide a wet substrate for laying eggs. Containers with the substrate covered with a grid with a mesh size of 2 mm. The netting is needed so that insects cannot dig out and eat eggs. In favorable home conditions, the female lays 200-500 eggs, in a shape similar to a banana.

Important!

The substrate should not be too dry or dense. When trying to lay eggs in dense or dry ground, females damage the oviduct and become unable to reproduce.

For substrate moisture should be closely monitored. When dried, white eggs dry out and become transparent. This means the death of the masonry. In the case of a dry substrate, the female may try to lay eggs in the water bowl. In this case, the clutch will also die.

Home cricket refers to insects with an incomplete cycle of transformation. In its development there are only three stages:

• egg;
• nymph;
• imago.

The pupal stage falls out. The nymph is very similar to an adult, but it has no wings. The nymph has 9-11 stages of development. That is to shed young home cricket will be 9-11 times.

At home, the development of eggs lasts 10 days, so the container with the substrate must be replaced every decade.Juveniles released from eggs must be fed with soft protein food, placing food in a container with low sides. You also need to provide young home crickets with water. For this fit wick drinkers.

Depending on the temperature in the room, the development of domestic crickets lasts 40–60 days or more. After completion of the development cycle, they are suitable for feeding domestic reptiles.