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Ground Crickets

Encyclopedia Article
three-eights inch long black ground cricket

Late summer and fall are the times of the year that homeowners and gardeners may notice an abundance of small (3/8 inch long) crickets.  These runts of the cricket world are called ground crickets or pygmy field crickets.  Ground crickets are a separate taxonomic group from the typical (and larger) black field crickets, and are not as well-known as the field crickets (probably because of their size).

Mole Cricket

Encyclopedia Article
Image of a mole cricket

One of the less common accidental invaders found inside houses and buildings in Iowa is also one of the most appropriately named insects, the mole cricket. These distinctive insects very closely resemble the common, lawn burrowing moles with their large, spade-like front legs. As the name implies, mole crickets live underground in burrows.

Camel Cricket

Encyclopedia Article

The camel crickets are a moderately common group of insects. They are also known as cave crickets, a name descriptive of their natural habitat. Like all crickets, the camel crickets have very large hind legs and long antennae. They are brownish in color and humpbacked in appearance. They are wingless and up to one inch long.

As the name implies, cave crickets are found in caves. However, they live in other cool, damp situations such as in wells, rotten logs, stumps and hollow trees, and under damp leaves, stones, boards, and logs.

Field Cricket

Encyclopedia Article

The field cricket is one of the most common household accidental invader insect pests. There are several species of field crickets ranging in size from 1/4 to 3/4 inch, but the best known is the black field cricket, a large, shiny black insect. Like other accidental invaders, field crickets spend most of their life outdoors where they feed, grow, develop and reproduce. Only during a limited portion of their life cycle do they wander indoors by mistake and create an annoyance.

Crickets Likely This Year

News Article

Brace yourselves. It is beginning to look like another "good" year for crickets. Calls are already coming in with complaints about crickets chirping in the house. Oh my.

Like other accidental invaders, field crickets spend most of their life outdoors where they feed, grow, develop and reproduce. Only during a limited portion of their life cycle do they wander indoors by mistake and create an annoyance.

Cave Crickets

News Article

One of the occasional insect pests encountered in home basements is the cave or camel cricket. The cave crickets and the well-known field crickets are from different families but look vaguely similar. Cave crickets have very large hind legs with "drumstick-shaped" femurs and long, slender antennae. They are brownish in color and rather humpbacked in appearance. They are wingless and up to one inch long.

Singing Insects of Summer

News Article

There is a chorus of insect noise out there lately.  The annual cicadas buzzing through the heat of the day are joined at night by the katydids and crickets.

Hedge Apples: Pest Control Myth

Encyclopedia Article
hedge apples are warty, green fruits the size of a baseball and come from the Osage orange tree.

hedge apples are warty, green fruits the size of a baseball and come from the Osage orange tree."Hedge apple" trees (also called Osage orange, Maclura pomifera) are not related to apples or oranges, and their fruit is inedible.  The large, grapefruit-sized, brain-like green fruit are better known than the trees and show up in the fall of the year in stores and farmers' markets where they are sold for their purported a

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