Cricket Control across Cape Town

The African field cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, is the black or dark brown cricket that sings loudly on warm evenings and wanders into houses, garages and outbuildings. The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, is lighter and yellowish brown, and is often found near warm spots such as geysers, stoves and laundry rooms. Mole crickets (Gryllotalpa species) are thick-bodied, velvety brown insects with spade-like front legs that tunnel through lawns and flowerbeds, leaving raised ridges and dead patches. Crickets feed on plant material, organic debris and sometimes fabrics and paper, which is why they can cause minor damage indoors too.

Is it really a cricket?

Half the battle with crickets is being sure you have them. Two different complaints bring people to us: something noisy indoors at night, and a lawn that is falling apart. Both have look-alikes, and some of those are not pest problems at all.

The noise at night

A cricket's chirp is a steady, high-pitched trill that stops the moment you get close. If the sound is coming from a garden pond, a water feature or a damp patch near one of the vleis around Kenilworth, Noordhoek or Zeekoevlei, there is a good chance it is a frog. Frogs are welcome visitors in a garden, and nothing we would treat. A scratching or scuttling sound in the ceiling is a different matter altogether and usually points to rats or mice. Indoors, a cricket that seems to be inside the wall is often in the cavity behind a built-in cupboard or under the bath panel, where the sound carries and echoes.

The damaged lawn

Mole crickets get blamed for a lot, and they are often guilty, but these four look similar from the stoep:

• Lawn caterpillar: the grass looks scalped, as if mown far too short, and the damage spreads quickly in late summer. Go out at night with a torch and you will see the caterpillars feeding on the blades.
• White grubs: fat, cream, C-shaped beetle larvae eat the roots, so the turf peels back like a loose carpet with no ridges or tunnels.
• Dog urine: a round dead patch with a bright, dark green ring around the edge.
• Dry patch: sandy soil in the northern suburbs and on the Cape Flats can become water-repellent, so water beads on top and runs off instead of soaking in.

Each of these needs a different fix, and only one of them is a cricket job.

What to check each season

Autumn, March to May

The nights cool down and the first cold fronts arrive, which is when field crickets start moving indoors. Before the first proper rain, check the rubber seal at the bottom of the garage door, the mesh on the airbricks and the gap under the kitchen door.

Winter, June to August

Outdoor activity drops right off. Any crickets still indoors tend to gather in the warmest spots, so look in the geyser cupboard, the laundry and behind the fridge. It is also the quiet season to change outside bulbs and fit door strips.

Spring, September to November

Young mole crickets are close to the surface. Walk the lawn after you have watered it and notice whether any area feels soft and springy underfoot. Spotting it now is much easier than repairing a dead lawn in January.

Summer, December to February

Field crickets are at their loudest, and every lit window becomes a target. If you are going away for the holidays, switch off the security floodlight that is not on a sensor, or you will come home to a garage full of crickets and the spiders that followed them.

If you rent out a cottage or run a guest house, autumn is also the time to brief whoever cleans. A cricket found behind a bed should be reported, not just put outside, because one indoors usually means a door seal has failed somewhere.

Mistakes that drag a cricket problem out

• Spraying the lounge carpet when the crickets are living in the garage and walking in under the door.
• Reseeding or relaying a lawn before the mole crickets underneath have been dealt with.
• Leaving damp cardboard boxes in the storeroom over winter, which gives them shelter and food.
• Assuming the noise will stop on its own when the weather turns. A cricket that has found a warm geyser cupboard can keep singing well into winter.

To see how we treat houses and lawns, visit our cricket control page, or pick your suburb from the list below for local notes, such as Durbanville.

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Cricket Control by suburb