Maybe it’s the unusualyl cold December weather, but in the past two weeks, we’ve had four crickets make an appearance in the basement, and two make their way to the first floor. Normally, this wouldn’t be cause for great alarm, but Mrs. Bricker, who doesn’t quail at the sight or smell of a full diaper that could well be used as a weapon of mass destrcution if Saddam got his hands on it, cannot stand crickets. She has a real phobic, panic reaction to them.
So I need to implement some method of catching crickets. Are there cricket motels, similar to roach motels? Can I bait traps with little canes and top hats, hoping that there are Jiminy-wannabees in the cricket crowd?
Crickets are tough. They hide in really small cracks, and they’re not after a food source in your house. They’re in your house because they’ve worked their way through cracks in the walls to get away from the cold.
They do no damage, and insecticide is not advised, especially seeing as you have a little one.
You effectively have 3 choices.
painstakingly find and seal every tiny crack and potential entrance in your house.
Wait for them to die (which will happen very soon.)
Spray the affected areas and walls with soapy water. Get them really soaked.
Soap kills bugs. It removes the waxy coating that keeps them hydrated.
Spray around the outside bottom of your outside doors (the front door, the back door, the basement door, whatever) with bug spray containing Diazinon if you can find it, otherwise something OTC like Ortho’s Home Defense will do.
You don’t normally contact the outside of the doorsill, but Jiminy Cricket does, in his climb into your house, so you can spray with a clear conscience.
Except for the fact that you’re MURDERING Jiminy Cricket, what is the MATTER with you…
<< tremulous little cricket voice >>
when you wish upon a starrrrr…
makes no difference who you arrrrrrre…
