CRICKETS, CRICKETS EVERYWHERE!

[kyogres]

My hometown has been invaded by crickets and I am not sure I can handle it. Normally I don't mind crickets, but these must be super-crickets or something because they are unlike any crickets I've encountered before. For one thing, they can FLY. (Since when could crickets fly? And if the answer is "always", then why have I never seen a flying one

Comments

[hooves]

Crickets cannot fly. However, there are other species they are related to that can, like katydids. Locusts, too, and some species of grasshopper are dark enough in color that you could easily think they are crickets.

Crickets are also nocturnal so if you see them during the day, they're either a.) a trapped cricket, somewhere they don't mean to be, or b.) not a cricket. They're super sluggish during the day and usually in hiding.

[kyogres]

Really? A quick Google search said that some crickets can fly for short distances, though they usually don't. Regardless of whether these are crickets or something else (locusts, maybe?), they are creeping me out. Large insects are the one "fear" I didn't get over in college... which is kind of ironic, considering how many cockroaches my dorm had.

[patamon]

We've been finding crickets (or something similar to them) in our apartment lately. The ones we've seen have really long antennae...ick. One is currently lurking in our bathroom somewhere...

[kyogres]

Yes, these have really long antenna and spikes on their legs. I can tolerate them from a distance (ie when they're outside) but they look so disgusting up close.

This is when I wish I was born into a culture that eats insects. Maybe then I wouldn't be so creeped out by our mini invasion.

[pheonixxfoxx]

Maybe, I should loan you Rory?! XD

[kyogres]

Yeah, something like Rory would help. XD

In the past my cats would chase and eat crickets, but now Callie is so old that she can't be bothered.

[pheonixxfoxx]

My cats are the same way. Insects come into this apartment, but they don't go back out...XD

[antoj]

Are they like a mottled brownish color?

i remember a few years ago going outside one night and an entire parking lot was covered in them. hundreds. everywhere.

they were gone in like a week... but it was odd.

[kyogres]

Nope, they're black.

Their numbers are starting to decrease at my mother's work, at least. Some geese decided to camp outside the building for the all-day insect buffet.

Why couldn't we have had a normal plague like... I don't know, birds or rolly pollies or something else that doesn't give me the heebie jeebies.

[socraticwaffles]

Yiiiikes. I thought the spider crickets (camel crickets?) we get bombarded with every summer were bad, since they jump so fast it's like teleporting, but at least they don't FLY O_o. Maybe when it gets cooler they'll all die off/go dormant?

[kyogres]

My mother even found pieces of a cricket in the washing machine today. Apparently a cricket went through the wash along with a load of towels. (How did it even get in there?!) Of course, my mother decided to show me the dismembered cricket when I was eating, which promptly made me lose my appetite. Thanks, mom...