My Backyard has zillions of crickets. Now, I kinda like them, so I dont want to eradicate them with sprays or poisons, but they get into the cat dish, inside, etc.
I want a natural control, like say geckos or mantids. Something I can order to be delivered here in CA.
Yeah, we got lizards, nice native lizards but they go to bed about the time the crickets come out.
Mantis?
Geckos?
Guineafowl. 
But then you would just be trading one problem for another…
Birds. Invest in a couple feeders, with different seed mixes, and a bird feeder.
Or tarantulas.
Got plenty of birds. But they are not nocturnal.
Can you set up a trap? They make great food, especially in salads and omelets.
Yeeeesss, but I was thinking more of a nocturnal predator.
anyone know if house geckos or mantids would work?
Here’s the solution.
Bats, maybe?
Toads. A lot of toads. They feed at night.
Yes, but can I buy some and ship to California?
Crickets don’t just vanish in the daytime. They lay low and don’t chirp but they are still right there. Their predators know where to find them.
If you’re overrun with them at night despite having birds and lizards during the day the number one thing you can probably do is reduce the outdoor lighting.
Importing non-native species to try to solve this problem isn’t a good solution.
You could buy a half dozen native toads, set them up for breeding, and release offspring periodically, populating your yard. Then you’ll eventually have a toad problem.
That’s when you buy some snakes and set them up for breeding.
How about cats? That’s what this Wikihow article suggests, as well as lizards. And cutting back on bright outdoor lights, and keeping the grasses mowed & plants trimmed, etc.
I am hoping to find a native species solotuion.
He may need to release wave after wave of Chinese needle snakes.
If you have a lot of outdoor lighting they will keep coming no matter what, including poison. You’ll just have heaps of dead crickets or a bunch of really fat frogs and they will still keep coming. They are coming to the light. You’re calling them over to you and asking what kind of animal you can add to the mix to get rid of them.
Is there a certain color of light that they respond to? Would it help to change the color of the light?
According to one study at least, warm yellowish-hued LED light attracted the fewest bugs. The study wasn’t about crickets specifically though and different bugs seem to respond to different lights. The warm hued LED was the overall winner.
Note the study was intended for the bug’s benefit (e.g. ecological effects of light pollution) and not humans, but attracting fewer bugs should benefit both either way. It also isn’t yet peer-reviewed but was credible enough to be presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference.
In general no light, or very low light would still attract fewer than any other possibility but you may be on to something.
I’ve used a red light when collecting night crawlers (fish bait). But I think the neighbors would talk if you had red outdoor lighting.
Tarantulas. There are species that are native to California, check a local pet store. My sister had one as a pet in the late 1980s and it loved crickets.
Of course, then you’d have to put up with frigging big hairy spiders. At least they aren’t noisy.