Cricket Control for Ocean View homes and businesses

Ocean View sits on the windy slopes above Kommetjie, a close-knit community where flats and family homes are built fairly tightly together. Wind, fynbos edges and shared buildings decide most of the pest problems we deal with here.

The local picture in Ocean View

German cockroaches move through flats via shared pipes and walls. Scorpions and rain spiders turn up in homes closest to the fynbos.

The housing is a mix of council-built flats, semi-detached and freestanding brick homes, with backyard rooms added on many properties. In the flats, shared stairwells, refuse areas and plumbing give cockroaches and rodents an easy path between units. Backyard structures with gaps at ground level let mice and rats straight in. Older roofs sometimes have loose sheeting where birds and rodents get into the ceiling.

The suburb is on exposed ground below Slangkop, with Table Mountain National Park fynbos and the Kommetjie coastline nearby. The wind is strong for much of the year, and winter fronts come straight off the Atlantic. Sandy soils and open veld around the edges harbour rodents and insects.

Tell-tale signs

1. Small chewed holes in clothing, curtains or paper stored in damp places.
2. Loud chirping at night that stops as soon as you walk towards it.
3. Birds and hadedas probing the lawn intensively, which is often a sign of mole crickets or other insects underneath.
4. Large numbers of crickets attracted to outside lights on warm nights.
5. Raised, soft ridges and tunnels in the lawn, especially after watering.
6. Patches of grass that brown and die, and lift easily because the roots have been cut.

Crickets do not bite people or spread disease in any meaningful way. Indoors, the main issues are lost sleep, droppings and small amounts of damage to fabrics, carpets and stored paper. Mole crickets are a bigger problem for property, because their tunnels cut grass roots and can damage lawns, sports fields and seedlings badly. Large numbers of crickets attracted to lights also draw in spiders and geckos, and sometimes scorpions.

Something most people miss

Crickets sometimes damage stored clothing, curtains and cardboard in damp outbuildings. If you use a garage or storeroom for storage, dry it out and box things in plastic.

When a technician deals with a cricket complaint, the first thing they check is the outside lighting and the garage door seal. Fixing those two things often makes more difference than the treatment itself.

How the treatment works

Indoors, we focus on finding where the crickets are coming in and hiding, then apply a residual treatment to entry points, door thresholds, garage edges and other hiding spots. Granular baits can be used around the perimeter of the house to reduce numbers before they reach the walls. For mole crickets, the lawn is treated with a targeted product and watered in so it reaches the tunnels, and timing matters because young mole crickets near the surface are easier to control. We use the least-toxic effective option and avoid spraying open living areas.

Want the full step-by-step? See how our cricket control service works.

Keeping them out afterwards

• Fit brush strips under exterior doors and garage doors so crickets cannot walk straight in.
• Keep the garage and storeroom tidy and dry, since crickets love damp cardboard and clutter.
• Swap bright white outside lights for yellow or warm-coloured bulbs, which attract fewer insects.
• Water the lawn deeply but less often, as constantly damp soil suits mole crickets.
• Clear leaf litter, mulch, firewood and garden rubbish away from the walls of the house.

Pricing, honestly

The cost depends on whether it is an indoor nuisance, a lawn problem or both, and on the size of the property and garden. A large lawn with widespread mole cricket damage takes more product and time than a perimeter treatment for a house. Follow-up treatments, if needed to catch a second generation, are included in a free quote upfront.

Field crickets are loudest and most noticeable in the warm months from late spring through summer. They often move indoors in autumn as the nights cool down and the first rains arrive. Mole cricket damage to lawns shows up most in spring and summer when they are active near the surface.

Questions we get asked in Ocean View

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