6 Ways to Get Crickets Out Of Your Home

Crickets in the home can be annoying when the constant chirping coming from somewhere under your furniture, beneath the carpet or inside the walls is nonstop. However, the noise of crickets is the least of your worries if you have a cricket infestation.

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Crickets can actually cause damage to fabric or stain walls, floors or furniture with their feces. In some cases, they can also carry disease. Cricket pest control can rid your home of these nuisances and help you keep them out.  

Getting rid of crickets can take a bit of persistence. Consider trying one or more of the options below if you have brown crickets in your home.

1. Reduce Moisture

Crickets are generally attracted to environments that are moist. If you reduce the moisture in areas like basements or crawl spaces, you may make the area less hospitable to crickets which can keep them from taking up residence and procreating. Add dehumidifiers to cut down on moisture, and address any leaks that may be causing water to infiltrate an area. 

2. Cut Down on Cricket Hiding Places

Get rid of places where crickets might hide out. Crickets especially like piles of paper or cardboard boxes. If you're storing items in cardboard boxes in your garage, basement, attic or closets, for example, you might want to swap them out for plastic or rubber storage bins. These are less attractive to crickets. Address piles of clutter and clear out cabinets full of items you never use, as these can also harbor crickets. 

3. Use Diatomaceous Earth or Boric Acid

Diatomaceous earth is a natural powder that can kill crickets and drive them away. You can get food-grade diatomaceous earth that's safe to use in your home. It shouldn't harm your pets or kids, but it will impact insects.

You can also use boric acid for the same purpose — but not in areas where you have kids or pets. You might spray this around some baseboards or in your basement, as it kills crickets. 

4. Get a Cat

If you introduce a cricket enemy into your home, you often reduce the number of these insects that infest your space. One of the easiest ways to do this is to get a cat. Cats naturally chase small pests of any type in your home, and their presence can reduce the likelihood that others want to move in.

5. Drive Out Crickets With Essential Oils

Some essential oils deter crickets. You can spray baseboards, entryways and storage locations with an essential oil and water mixture to help reduce cricket infestation. The oils that are known to help chase away crickets include lavender, peppermint and citronella. 

6. Call in the Pros

If these homegrown efforts don't work to get rid of crickets in your home, consider calling in a professional pest control company. A professional can treat your home with options you don't have access to, substantially reducing cricket populations in your home.

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How Do You Prevent Crickets From Coming Back?

However you manage a cricket infestation, you probably don't want the pests to come back. Some things you can do to prevent crickets from returning include:

• Replacing your exterior lights with options that aren't as bright and attractive to crickets, reducing the number of crickets that find their way onto your property
• Cleaning your home regularly, ensuring no food crumbs are left out and you securely close all food containers
• Keeping clutter to a minimum and avoiding storing piles of papers, boxes and newspapers or magazines 
• Sealing entry points that crickets might use to enter your home, such as cracks in foundations or gaps around doors or windows
• Spraying exterior areas with essential oil mixtures that repel crickets
• Planting items outside your home that help repel crickets

A stray cricket may enter your home from time to time, even with all the precautions above. However, if you take these steps and work with a pest control company to maintain an infestation-free home through inspections and regular treatments, you should be able to get a handle on your cricket woes and live a mostly chirp-free life.