July 23, 2007

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DALLAS – They're like uninvited guests who show up too early for the party. To make matters worse, they get underfoot and smell.

Welcome back the field cricket. They're arriving earlier than usual this summer in Texas, said Dr. Mike Merchant, a Texas Cooperative Extension entomologist based in Dallas.

"We can blame the unusual summer rain," Merchant said. "That triggers mating flights."

The crickets typically appear much later, after a long dry summer followed by early fall rain, he said. But this season's rain apparently hastened development and softened the soil early for their eggs.

Extension offices have received complaints about crickets in Austin, Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Paris, Rockwall and Sulphur Springs, he said. But agents expect to hear more as eggs hatch and crickets mature.

"We're starting to see them this week in the Dallas area," Merchant said.

Researchers don't know if the crickets' early arrival also means that they will return in larger numbers, Merchant said. "Time will tell."

They're pests nevertheless, he said.

Crickets breed in open fields and along roads and swarm to lights on their mating flights, he said. They turn up most often around shopping centers, gas stations and other commercial buildings where outdoor lights are left on all night.

"They're usually a nuisance for places of business," Merchant said. "They repulse shoppers."

They cover walls and walkways, he said. And they crunch when stepped on. After they die, their bodies decompose and emit a pungent odor.

"If you get a couple of pounds of crickets outside your doorway you're going to smell it," he said. "It's not good for your business."

Common insecticides can kill crickets, but the best way to handle them is to turn off outdoor lights, Merchant said. Businesses, for example, can turn them off after hours.

As an alternative, businesses could use lights that are less attractive to crickets, he said. Standard lighting could be replaced by low-pressure sodium vapor lamps and yellow incandescent "bug lights."

The same lighting solutions could also be applied to homes, he said. Field crickets live outdoors and get into buildings accidentally, Merchant said. They won't breed indoors or establish permanent infestations. Unlike people, birds may be the only ones happy about the crickets, Merchant said.

"That's one good thing about grackles," Merchant said. "They love them. Pigeons eat them too."

For more information, go to Extension's "Insects in the City" Web site at http://citybugs.tamu.edu/IntheNews_Details.asp?ID_Key=437 .