Our unfinished basement and its attached crawl space harbor a modest population of cave crickets, especially during the colder months. Easily recognized by their large hind legs, long antennae, light-brown color and hunched-back appearance, these insects and their cousins are found on all Continents except Antarctica; they are also known as camel crickets and are closely related to the sand-treaders that inhabit desert dunes across the globe.
Natural residents of caves, these crickets feed on a wide variety of organic matter, especially decaying plant and animal tissue. Harmless to humans and other creatures, cave crickets favor dark, moist areas and are thus attracted to basements, crawl spaces and laundry rooms where they are easily caught and relocated if so desired.
Adult females lay up to 200 eggs in each brood, many of which are consumed by beetles and birds; as with other Orthopterans, those that survive hatch into miniature replicas of the adults and grow through a series of molts. In natural areas, adult cave crickets fall prey to a variety of hunters including birds, mice, snakes and toads; while our resident population is seemingly safe from those predators, a Carolina wren has learned to slip through the edge of a dog door flap and frequently comes in to feast on our basement crickets.
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