Southern Utah pest library
Cricket Identification
Crickets in the house are a late summer and fall problem in Southern Utah.
These are the chirping, jumping insects that show up in Utah garages, basements, and entryways every late summer and fall. They’re not dangerous and they don’t bite, but their constant noise and ability to chew on fabric, paper, and even wallpaper makes them one of the more frustrating nuisance pests in the state. Sealing entry points and reducing outdoor moisture handles most cases, and a professional pest control perimeter treatment shuts down the rest.
Most of the ones around Utah homes belong to the genus Gryllus, with adults running from about a half-inch to just over an inch long. Field crickets are dark brown to black with long antennae, powerful jumping hind legs, and wings folded flat over the back. House crickets are lighter, yellowish-brown with three darker bands across the head. Females have a long, needle-like ovipositor extending from the rear, which is sometimes mistaken for a stinger but is harmless. Cave or camel crickets, which also show up in Utah basements, are humpbacked, wingless, and don’t chirp, they’re often confused with spiders at first glance because of their long legs. The chirping sound homeowners hear is made by males rubbing their wings together, and only certain species produce it.
Quick ID
Crickets in the House: Quick ID
When September nights cool off, crickets move from rock beds and block walls into garages and homes.
Size
1/2 to 1 inch
Long antennae, big jumping back legs and two tail feelers.
Color
Black or tan
Field crickets are black to dark brown; house crickets are tan with dark bands on the head.
Where in Southern Utah
Garages and rock beds
Garage edges, window wells, rock beds and around porch lights at night.
Danger level
Nuisance, scorpion food
No real bite risk, but a yard full of crickets feeds bark scorpions.
Low Risk
Seeing Crickets? We can help.
A licensed technician will inspect, treat the problem areas, and come back free if they return between visits.
Where Crickets Live in Utah
You’ll find them across both Southern and Northern Utah, in landscapes ranging from desert washes around Hurricane to manicured Wasatch Front lawns. They prefer warm, moist hiding places during the day, under rocks, mulch, woodpiles, landscape timbers, and irrigation boxes, and emerge at night to feed and call for mates. Camel crickets prefer cooler, damper spots like crawl spaces, basements, and window wells. As nights cool down in late August and September, the outdoor population starts migrating toward warmer structures, and that’s when garage doors, basement windows, and foundation gaps start delivering them indoors in numbers.
Why They Get Into Homes / What Attracts Them
Crickets come inside chasing three things: warmth, moisture, and light. Falling temperatures push them toward heated buildings, and any warm air leaking out of a foundation gap or garage door is a beacon. Outdoor lighting attracts them too, porch lights, security lights, and landscape lighting pull them in from across the yard, where they then find their way inside. Damp basements, leaky water heaters, and humid crawl spaces give them a reason to stay. Once inside, they’re not picky about food: pet kibble, crumbs, paper, fabric, houseplants, and even dead insects all work. Homes with heavy mulch beds, rock landscaping, or dense ground cover near the foundation tend to see the most pressure.
Signs You Have a Cricket Problem
An infestation gives itself away pretty quickly:
- Persistent chirping at night, often from a single hard-to-find spot
- Crickets jumping out from behind appliances, boxes, or storage bins
- Small, irregular holes chewed in clothing, curtains, paper, or cardboard
- Dark droppings, about the size of pencil tips, in basements, garages, and storage areas
- Dead ones piling up in window wells, garage corners, and basement floors
- Pet food bowls visited overnight or knocked-over kibble
- Camel crickets jumping erratically when surprised in damp basements or crawl spaces
What’s the Damage?
Mostly they’re a nuisance, but they’re not entirely harmless to property. They’ll chew on natural fibers like cotton, wool, silk, and linen, and they’ll feed on paper, cardboard, books, and wallpaper paste, sometimes leaving small irregular holes in stored clothing or boxed items. They don’t bite people in any meaningful way and don’t carry significant disease risk. The bigger issue for most homeowners is sleep: a single calling male in a wall void or basement corner can be loud enough to keep an entire household awake until it’s found and removed.
Crickets feed scorpions
They’re a favorite food of the Arizona bark scorpion, so cutting them back is part of keeping scorpions away.
DIY or a pro
Cricket Control: How to Get Rid of Crickets
Catch the ones inside, then close the door they used.
What you can do yourself
- Vacuum them up and set glue boards along garage walls and behind appliances.
- Replace the garage door bottom seal and add door sweeps.
- Keep the garage door closed after dark.
- Dim or turn off porch and landscape lights at night.
- Clear leaf litter and dense ground cover by the foundation.
When to Call a Professional Cricket Exterminator
If chirping has become a nightly event, or if you’re regularly finding them in living spaces, a perimeter treatment combined with targeted interior work is the fastest way to take back control. Green Defense uses eco-friendly products applied at foundation level and around common entry points, knocking down current activity and creating a barrier through the fall migration. Request a free quote and we’ll handle it before the next chirping marathon.
Because crickets are scorpion food, scorpion control around the foundation goes hand in hand with cricket control, and our residential pest control keeps both down through the fall.
How to Prevent Crickets Around Your Home
Most problems trace back to entry points and outdoor conditions:
- Seal gaps under exterior doors with door sweeps, especially on garage and basement doors
- Caulk foundation cracks, utility penetrations, and gaps around windows and dryer vents
- Reduce exterior lighting at night, or switch to yellow or sodium-vapor bulbs that attract fewer insects
- Move landscape and security lighting away from the home so the bugs gather in the yard, not at the door
- Keep basements, crawl spaces, and storage areas dry, fix leaks and run a dehumidifier if needed
- Remove leaf litter, woodpiles, and dense mulch within a few feet of the foundation
- Trim back vegetation touching the house and clear out window wells
- Store pet food in sealed containers, not open bags in the garage
Get Your Nights Back
We treat the perimeter, garage edges and rock beds before the fall migration. If pests come back between visits, so do we, free.
Questions
Common Questions
Why are there crickets in my house every fall?
Cooler nights push them toward warm buildings, and porch lights draw them to the door.
Do crickets attract scorpions?
Yes. They’re one of the bark scorpion’s main foods, so a cricket problem can feed a scorpion problem.
Do crickets bite or damage anything?
They rarely bite, but they chew fabric, paper and cardboard in storage.
How do I find a chirping cricket?
Follow the sound with a flashlight at night; it usually stops when you get close, so pause and listen.
Need them gone? See how our pest control plans work. If pests come back between visits, so do we, free. Live in Washington County? Learn about exterminator services in St. George.
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