Fun Facts About Crickets (And How to Care for Crickets) (2024)

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Do you know a cricket from a grasshopper—or, how crickets sing? Also, a cricket is a great (non-biting) insect for children to observe, especially in the classroom. Learn more aboutcrickets!

Studies show that our pets help improve our mood and lower blood pressure. And, strangely, this is even true of crickets! In many Asian countries, crickets are indeed a popular insect pet and studies have shown crickets help the well-being of the elderly.

Fun CricketFacts

• Crickets, unlike grasshoppers, are short and stubby, and tend not tojump.
• A fully-grown male is less than an inch long, while the female cricket is about 50 percentlonger.
• Insects have a head, thorax and abdomen and sixlegs.
• Crickets shed their exoskeleton when they need togrow.
• Only male crickets can sing. They don’t use their mouth or legs to make the noise but their wings.To sing, male crickets lift their wing casings at a 45 degree angle and rub themtogether.
• Crickets can sing and eat at the same time. (Canyou?)
• Females have an ovipositor (the long stick-like body part at the end of her abdomen); males have two wings and noovipositor
• The males chirp to find amate.
• Female crickets lay their eggs in the fall. When they hatch in May or early June there are thousands of tiny black crickets, but by July they are bigger and large enough to startsinging.
• The females lay their eggs in damp dirt by pushing their ovipositor into the dirt. They can lay up to approx. 10 eggs aday.
• Like all insects, crickets are cold-blooded. They sing faster or slower depending on thetemperature.

Did you know? To convert cricket chirps to degrees Fahrenheit, count the number of chirps in 14 seconds and then add 40 to get the temperature.

Example: 30 chirps + 40 = 70°F

Find out more about using cricket chirps to predict temperature.

CricketFarms

• In many countries, crickets are eaten! They are farmed and consumed as a high-protein, low-fat snack, boiled in rolling water and sautéed with some salt and oliveoil.
• Recently, cricket “flour” has been gaining in popularity, too; it’s an expensive, gluten-free, high-protein alternative to wheatflour.
• Yep, those backyard critters have 16 to 21 grams of protein per 100 grams of cricket. An entomologist with the Audubon Nature Institute says, “Crickets provide more than enough protein to fuel the rest of your day. And they contain a good, but not excessive, amount of fat andcarbohydrate.”
• They’re an eco-friendlysuper food that has more protein density per bite than beef and is chock-full of vitamins andminerals!
• Note:Crickets are are farmed are not bought from pet shops; store-bought crickets are not meant for human consumption based on their artificialfeed.

Keeping a PetCricket

A cricket is a great insect for children to observe, especially in theclassroom.

• A fishbowl or terrarium covered with wire mesh is ideal. Or any glass or plastic enclosure is fine as long as there isproper ventilation (so the insects can breathe) with goodairflow.
• Add moist dirt or sandand leaves to the bottom of the jar. A piece of bark can also create a comfortable atmosphere for your cricket.Toilets rolls also allow them tohide.
• Because they’ll need a constant source of water, provide a water tray that’s shallow enough that they can’t drown. You could use thelid of a plastic medicine jar. It can be put in with tweezers or a bacon turner. You can fill the water dish by drawing water through astraw.
• Add a food container; a bottle cap is fine. Crickets need clean food every day. They like most everything, especially raw vegetables such as cucumber as well as grains including granola and oats. They will also need a little protein (tofu,chicken, or even a dog biscuit) or they will start eating each other. You can also buy specifically made cricket food from pet shops. They also like fishfood.
• Avoid all pesticides which will kill your cricket.Using insecticides around the home can kill your crickets, too. Put them outside if you’re sprayingchemicals.
• The best place to catch a cricket is inside your house. In the fall, crickets come inside, attracted by the warmth. You can also buy crickets at a pet shop (they are food for lizards andfrogs).
• Once you catch your cricket, wrap him loosely in a handkerchief and transfer him into his jar. We might do this in a glass enclosed showerstall.
• Crickets don’t like extreme colds or heats. They prefer a regular temperature of about 86degrees.
• Clean their home every few days. Always remove any dead crickets. Make sure the food doesn’t have any mold onit.

The sad part is, a cricket’s life is very short, whether they are outside or protected inside. Typically, if you catch one in good condition in August or September, he should last till about Thanksgiving. When the time comes, bring the jar outside and say yourgoodbyes.

Do you know any cricket facts? Or have you ever kept a cricket as a pet? Let us know in thecomments!

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