I don't like bugs. Particularly troubling to me is the apparent cricket infestation that we seem to be battling. The one or two that had been caught in the house and flushed didn't seem like a problem. That all changed when I awoke one night in a sweat. Yes, I know that pregnancy hormones tend to cause exaggerated dreams, but there were crickets attacking me. Giant killer crickets. And they FLEW! These were coming in swarms and they were jumping on my face and I was sure I was going to be eaten alive. The catalyst for this nightmare came from a lone cricket in the closet and it's incessant chirping. I had to pretty much jump on my brave but groggy warrior to get him to get up and find the intruder. Three times. He claimed he couldn't find it, but I knew that I would not get another second of sleep until the killer was successfully flushed. Eventually, the battle was won. However, the war is still raging.
Did y'all know that crickets eat EVERYTHING!! EVERYTHING!! Cloth, silk, cotton, wallpaper, wood, anything they can get their mandibles around. I didn't know this until I did a bit of online research. I came across a site with the above image. While I can't say we have much in the way of Prada here on the farm, I'd just as soon the crickets aren't eating what we DO have. If anyone has any tips on how to rid our home of these invaders, PLEASE COMMENT! From what I've read, they sneak in itty bitty cracks (those tend to be a reality in a 200 year old home) and then the females proceed to lay hundreds and thousands of eggs!! Yikes! The eggs don't hatch for a year so likely, no matter what we do now, we will have crickets next year since it seems that they are coming in through the basement and that being our main storage area, there are billions of places for them to be hiding. Luckily everything is stored in rubbermaid bins and I'm hoping they aren't persistent enough to eat through one of those.
3 comments:
Ha ha....those preggo dreams are always so insane! I've had some bizarre ones myself.
I've heard if you put a wet rag in the sink (or where ever) they will be attracted to that and then you can smoosh them. I am clueless as to how to rid oneself of an infestation.....hmmm.....wait for winter? Let the freeze kill 'em. Sorry, I'm not much help.
I'm afraid we may need to just wait for winter. On average we are catching and killing about a half dozen a day now. The kids think it's pretty fun. The chirping begins and they go on the hunt. yuck. Meanwhile I'm ready to set up a moat of pest killer around my bed to ward off a nighttime attack. :)
Oh p.u. Nothing worse than listening to crickets all night long. Well, at least you don't have a house-centipede infestation.....now those things are NASTY!!!!
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