Crickets/Cave Crickets

We have a ton of crickets and Cave crickets roaming around our house and since my cat is coming home in a month or less I guess I need to know what to do about them. Are they Toxic if ingested? My dog doesn't bother with them, but a young, curious and active cat might. I know crickets carry nasty parasites cus when I rescued my lizard I spent a lot of money making him healthy, since he had a really severe case of parasite infection due to being fed crickets. I have no idea how to get rid of them except for squashing them every time I see them, but they give me the creeps and make me squeal like a little girl so I try to stay away from the basement or run down there and quickly do what I need to then get out.



~LadyRowan

They're not toxic. And since they're wild crickets, while they could carry things, they shouldn't be as bad as some farm raised crickets.

And yes, I know about what nasty crickets can do to lizards. Some people don't know better and will go buy bait crickets or insects from fluker's (which has more wrong with it than just poor quality disease ridden crickets).

If you want to keep insects out you need to clean up around the perimeter of your home and make sure it's not damp up around the foundation. You can, if you truly wish to, get a barrier spray such as Ortho makes and use that outside.

Thanks for the reply. I'll have to show this post to my BF so we can see if we can get rid of them. More for my sake really than the cat's haha.

~Lady Rowan

Do you have any idea where they're coming in at? You might have an old mouse hole somewhere or something. In which case, patch any holes.

I don't know but they are crawling all in the rocks we have under our deck and in front of our house. We recently had a major moth infestation too which started to die down once we started killing them and laying out the sticky tape rolls for flies. Our walls are covered with bug guts in various place, the nice buttery yellow paint, then.. well...it is just gross...

Meal moths? I hate those things! I raise mealworms and am constantly fighting the moths that get into the bins.

Look under your sinks, in the closet were the hot water heater is, etc. Sometimes when holes are cut for pipes whoever cuts them will make the holes bit too large. Check your lower cabinets and behind any drawers, too.

We had a bag of grass seed that was pretty old and my BF said when he opened it all the way there was all sorts of creepys crawling in there so he threw it out. I think the moths are dying down cus we threw out the seed bag. He was worried about his expensive suits. The storage room where the grass sees was where the hot water heater is and the exposed concrete foundation is.

Meal moths are just a tiny grain moth that goes by several names - flour moths, grain moths, pantry moths, etc. They're very hard to get rid of, but if your house can get chilly in the winter that will take care of them.
They are not clothes moths, they larvae will web themselves up on fabric as a cocoon, but that's it. They can however chew through thin plastic so you need to inspect everything in your kitchen.

And do check all of the rooms for any holes, cracks, loose windows, etc - especially that one you say the hot water heater is in. Fixing those problems should keep out all sorts of insects - because it's only a matter of time until the spiders follow the prey insects in.

Ewwwww. I was fine until you brought up the spiders.

Yea we have a couple spiders sometimes but not often. Yea, my BF figured it was the grass seed that attracted them.