How do Katydids get in my house?

[olefin]

Our house is built very tight. When it was being built I payed special attention to sealing every know crack or opening. I think the house is probably much tighter than the average house.
But on the lower level I have seen and killed several Katydids. My wife and I can’t find any place they could get in.

So where are they coming from?

[The_Great_Unwashed]

Did they have keys?

[FairyDust]

There has been a large infestation in the West of katydids which experts say could be the worst in decades.

Perhaps the ones in your home are stowaways. Possibly they jumped onto your clothes without your knowledge and were brought into the house. Just guessing.

[olefin]

*Originally posted by FairyDust *
**There has been a large infestation in the West of katydids which experts say could be the worst in decades.

Perhaps the ones in your home are stowaways. Possibly they jumped onto your clothes without your knowledge and were brought into the house. Just guessing. **

I think the infestation in the West are really what we locally call grasshoppers.

Also I never see Katydids on the outside?
Maybe the ones outside are tiny and do come in on clothes.

What gets me is that the ones inside are fairly large and would require a large opening and there is none?

[FairyDust]

*Originally posted by olefin *
**I think the infestation in the West are really what we locally call grasshoppers.

Also I never see Katydids on the outside?
Maybe the ones outside are tiny and do come in on clothes.

What gets me is that the ones inside are fairly large and would require a large opening and there is none? **

The news story includes this:

The Mormon cricket actually is a katydid, similar to a grasshopper. It got its name in 1848 when swarms invaded the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah. According to lore, the settlers prayed for divine assistance that arrived in the form of gulls, which ate the insects and saved the crops.

Crickets, grasshoppers, katydids. I get them all confused. shudder six-legged creepy looking critters! eeek!

:eek:

Have you called an exterminator? Although a more natural way to rid your home of these might be to bring in some frogs and toads.

[olefin]

*Originally posted by FairyDust *
**Have you called an exterminator? Although a more natural way to rid your home of these might be to bring in some frogs and toads. **

I never use an exterminator… For less than 10 bucks I take care of that for a year or so with a gallon of spay from SAMS.
The Katydids die but that is not the problem… I need to find where they get in.

The natural way… LOL , I’m no nature guy!

[One_And_Only_Wanderers]

*Originally posted by FairyDust *

Have you called an exterminator? Although a more natural way to rid your home of these might be to bring in some frogs and toads.

But what do you bring in to get rid of your new toad infestation??

[The_Great_Unwashed]

*Originally posted by Carl_A_Norris *
**But what do you bring in to get rid of your new toad infestation??

**

Easy. Snakes.

[FairyDust]

The infestation here in the West sounds like a horror movie. Here’s the latest news story about it.

:eek:

For the record, the crickets aren’t really crickets, but shieldbacked katydids misnamed by the Mormon settlers in Utah

A shopping center was infested with thousands and thousands of these insects.

Ugh!

A state of emergency was declared.
But the good news is that they found a solution: carbaryl. The katydids cannot resist eating it, then they die within 15 minutes, their fellow katydids who are cannibalistic eat the carcasses, and they in turn die. Clever solution, eh?