Apr 19, 2011 – Child of the Earth
QUESTION:
How do control Jerusalem Crickets around a home?
ANSWER:
Jerusalem Crickets are those huge crickets also called potato bugs or Child of the Earth, supposedly an old Spanish name for them due to their large face and eyes. Native Indians referred to them as "Old Bald Headed Man". For years it was believed there was a single western species - Stenopelmatus fuscus - but a few years ago someone more carefully studied them with new scientific techniques and recognized there are actually several different kinds that are similar but biologically separate. They are big insects that could give a pretty good bite if they were handled carelessly, but otherwise are harmless.
These insects are nocturnal, feeding and active at night and hiding under objects on the soil or in soil tunnels they find or dig for themselves. Females also dig a nesting chamber in the soil and deposit their eggs in this chamber. They feed on many kinds of plant materials found on the soil, as well as on other insects, so in this respect they should be considered beneficial, and the amount of damage they would do to plants is normally insignificant. All of this points to the fact that, frankly, they do not need to be controlled. You rarely find more than 1 or 2 of them on any property, and aside from scaring people who turn over a board and find one staring back at them, they do no harm. They are HUGE for a bug, some growing to at least 2 inches in length with a huge shiny head and shiny abdomen with black rings around it. Since people hate bugs of any kind, the bigger kinds are hated even more, which is unfortunate and simply leads to killing things that should be left alone.
However, if a customer insists on having something done they can start by clearing things off the soil to remove harborage for the crickets. You can apply granular bait insecticides in appropriate locations outdoors, and directed applications of a pyrethroid residual insecticide should effectively kill them. It remains important to recognize that these are rarely a true problem, and applying large volumes of insecticides to kill a couple of bugs would not seem to be necessary. Some people choose to keep them as "pets" in a terrarium once they realize what they are, rather than killing them.
How do control Jerusalem Crickets around a home?
ANSWER:
Jerusalem Crickets are those huge crickets also called potato bugs or Child of the Earth, supposedly an old Spanish name for them due to their large face and eyes. Native Indians referred to them as "Old Bald Headed Man". For years it was believed there was a single western species - Stenopelmatus fuscus - but a few years ago someone more carefully studied them with new scientific techniques and recognized there are actually several different kinds that are similar but biologically separate. They are big insects that could give a pretty good bite if they were handled carelessly, but otherwise are harmless.
These insects are nocturnal, feeding and active at night and hiding under objects on the soil or in soil tunnels they find or dig for themselves. Females also dig a nesting chamber in the soil and deposit their eggs in this chamber. They feed on many kinds of plant materials found on the soil, as well as on other insects, so in this respect they should be considered beneficial, and the amount of damage they would do to plants is normally insignificant. All of this points to the fact that, frankly, they do not need to be controlled. You rarely find more than 1 or 2 of them on any property, and aside from scaring people who turn over a board and find one staring back at them, they do no harm. They are HUGE for a bug, some growing to at least 2 inches in length with a huge shiny head and shiny abdomen with black rings around it. Since people hate bugs of any kind, the bigger kinds are hated even more, which is unfortunate and simply leads to killing things that should be left alone.
However, if a customer insists on having something done they can start by clearing things off the soil to remove harborage for the crickets. You can apply granular bait insecticides in appropriate locations outdoors, and directed applications of a pyrethroid residual insecticide should effectively kill them. It remains important to recognize that these are rarely a true problem, and applying large volumes of insecticides to kill a couple of bugs would not seem to be necessary. Some people choose to keep them as "pets" in a terrarium once they realize what they are, rather than killing them.
