# Average life Expectancy of a Cricket?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 10, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665 "2000-09-10T06:26:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wireless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wireless)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665/1 "2000-09-10T06:26:48Z")
OK, for more than a week now there’s been a cricket living under my fridge.
And every night, ALL night, it’s “creek, creek creek”.
Because of its location, I can’t reach it (or even find it), and I don’t want to spray chemicals (because it’s the kitchen).
So can anyone tell me how long (how much LONGER, that is) this thing is likely to live? It’s lovely to hear in the evening - such a nice, summery sound - but I also like to sleep sometimes, too!
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### Author:  [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665/2 "2000-09-10T11:37:08Z")
IIRC, the cricket only lives three or four chapters; then Pinocchio squashes it flat. Of course, then you get haunted by cricket ghost as conscience.
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### Author:  [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665/3 "2000-09-10T13:16:25Z")
How much eating are you doing underneath your fridge?
If you spray some bug killer under and around it, you should have no problem with the poison issue.
Your a more patient person than myself. Within the first few minutes of hearing a ‘creak, creak, creak’, I would have gassed the sucker.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665/4 "2000-09-10T16:25:28Z")
Can’t get to it? Move the fridge. Even the big ones can generally be muscled out pretty easily unless bolted into the cabinets as a built in. If this is really impossible get a vac cleaner with a hose and and one of thise skinny suction attachments and see if you can get lucky.
Get some 70% strength isopropyl alochol and put it into a spray bottle and blast into general vicinity of the cricket. Alcohol will evaporate after a few hours and leave no poison reside.
Get a small gecko lizard.
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### Author:  [@Kat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kat)
#### Post date: [September 10, 2000, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665/5 "2000-09-10T23:54:40Z")
According to [this article](http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/9/0,5716,28339+1+27894,00.html) at [Britannica.com](http://Britannica.com), “adults ordinarily live 6 to 8 weeks.” So you could have as many as 7 more weeks of chirping cricket.
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### Author:  [@shhh\_zzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shhh_zzzz)
#### Post date: [September 11, 2000, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/average-life-expectancy-of-a-cricket/32665/6 "2000-09-11T03:16:50Z")
…they live 6 to 8 weeks in their _natural habitat_…once they enter into the virtual Heaven of your nice, warm, pesticide-free home, their life expectancy can double or triple.