Camel Cricket Terror

Velika this is too funny! I LOVE knowing that I'm not the only person alive who is terrified of these nasty creatures! Great writing! Deserves a pullizer! ;)

I hate camelback crickets - loathe them. I have only see about 5 in a few months, and fear there are more. Is there anything I can try to get rid of them before calling an exterminator? My basement is completely waterproofed and I run a dehumidifier all year, have not seem them there - just in the dowbstairs bathroom and garage. HELP. PS: Velika is brave compared to me - I reach for a can of Raid.

oh yes! I've had my experience with these creeps...

I don't know what it is about them but it definately feels unnaturel on first site. I used to live in downtown Rockville a few years ago, and as a cyclist, I would store my bikes in my shed. One day, late in the Spring, I got up early on a Sat. morning to hit the trails... when I opened up the shed I heard some thumping around... it was a little dark but we keep a flashlight right by the door... I grabbed it and turned it on and to my horror I saw something I'd never imagined in my life... not one or two... but about ten of these creatures... they were on the floor, on the walls... I was stunned but vexed at the same time! I ran from the shed and composed myself after a minute or two knowing that I had to get my bike or it would ruin my day. So, I'm like "fuk it" I went in with the flashlight to get my bike. When I go in they where not making much movement so I felt a little better... but as soon as I reached my bike these bastards started jumping around like "house of pain" so I grabbed my bike and bolted. My housemates were still asleep but I was very upset and wouldn't wake them. I went on my ride cuz I needed to clear my head... when I returned I put my bike in the house and went back to the shed cuz the situation stayed in my mind. Dumb! Oh, There seemed like more had decided to show themselves, maybe cuz it was the middle of the day and it's dark in the shed but, it seemed like there were at least thirty or more there.... well I left the door open, hopped on my bike and went to CVS and got the insect bomb, used it and the next day went to check on my success. I found at least twenty had died but there were still some alive.... I moved a month later.

I too have these nasty mutated creatures in my home! They really freak me out and that is not easily done. I'm not even really bothered by spiders or other creatures, but these, well they terrify me! My first time was in my hallway by my laundry, I almost stepped right on it with my bare foot, uuuggghh!I screamed and never moved so fast in my life to get away from it. My son, he is 13 came running and was grossed out too. But being the braver of the two of us he threw a flip flop at it and smashed it all over the floor. He threw that sandal hard and fast it was nothing but guts! Thank God! I swept it up and thought that was the end of it, it was NOT! There have been 2 more since then, about one per week. But I am telling you this one was huge!!! I am thinking maybe she was the queen or their leader or something. My bedroom is close to the bathroom and laundry so I have been sleeping on my couch. Just the thought of one of these monsters getting on me really, really freaks me out! My son and I at first felt guilty that maybe we had killed some new creature or a mutation. We had never seen anything like it. I asked my neighbor if she has seen any and she said yes and they freak her out too! But it is strange, I am 41 years old and have never seen such a creature in my entire life and I grew up in the country. Where did these thing's come from? Are they new? Are they aliens or mutations of the cricket? Did a cricket and spider get busy some how and create this monstrous offspring? It truly doesn't matter where they came from I just want to know how to send them back!? I do NOT want these thing's in my home or anywhere near my family. HELP!!! What do we do to get rid of these vile giant mutations?

I woke up with one of these mother FREAKERS on my head last night just as i was about to fall asleep!!! I'M SO DONE WITH THEM!!! too many around and its skeeving me out beyond belief!!! i caught the little bastard and dropped him in the toilet... sprayed bleach on him and watched him seize every 5 seconds till he died!!! and i have love for EVERY creature on this earth, BUT THIS ONE?!?!?!?! He touched me!!!!!!! aghhhhh!!!! LOL funny thing is... i had these in one of my FIRST apartments and i initially thought they were a mutation from the massive amounts of mountain dew soda cups that were half full and left in my apartment by the previous tenant. but now that theyre in THIS apartment... I GUESS THEYRE NOT!!! ugh...

I have these ugly little bastards in my basement. They seem to only come out in the winter, about 3 times in summer this year. I hate them with a passion. If you swat at them or hit them they just come towards you. They are so ugly with those stripes on their legs and even more gross I occasionally find dead ones and limbs just laying there :p. My dad is the only one in the family who is not afraid to touch them, or get so near one that you can actually make out that it's a cricket.

I first met these creatures about 6 years ago when we bought a little, old fixer upper that was built in 1850. I had yet to see any in the house, but one day I went to the shed, which use to be the outhouse and when I opened the door there must have been about 50 of them on the inside of the door. I freaked out at the sight of them and those long feelers or antenna. I am sure the whole neighborhood heard me. Then about 3 years later we moved to a home that was built in the 1700's and I freaked out again when I found the same kind of critters over in the dark side of the basement. There is a crawlspace there and it probably gets damp.
I get freaked out just thinking about them. The reason I am relating all of this is because my husband and I were working on the hot water heater today and I had another sighting. I got my flashlight and looked up in the eaves by the front of the house and found at least 4 of the ugly suckers there. Makes my skin crawl just thinking about them. Tomorrow my husband will be on a mission spraying around in that crawl space to get rid of those things. I had never seen them until we bought a much older home, so I figured they were like prehistoric creatures that found good hiding places. Good Luck if you have any in your home or shed.

ok soooo ive been reading these comments and have seen these ugly sone of a benches twice in my beautiful summer but o gosh!the first time i saw it was with my cousin and she ran to me in the kitchen and said there is some kind of ugly bug around your dads desk but she didnt sound alarmed......i checked..and nothing.i went on playing with her until WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIAAAA!!!!!!i saw my mom in the bathroom and saw the awful cricket running down the hallway.i never in my life seen a terrible thing like that in my life at all.i screamed so loud i sounded like a fire alarm and my cousin said that that was the bug SHE saw!and we put sprays on it like bubblegum remover that is like freezing cold and it went in my moms bathroom alot cause we have 2.one in the hall and in my moms bathroom.andit went in the cloths near the washing machine.got out it went under my moms bed and we did reasherch on it and spent centuries on trying to take it out of my moms bed and i turned around and saw it running down the hallway and spraid it near my dads desk and saw it and we spraid it alot behind his desk until.......dead.and my dads the only one who can pick it up and throooww the sucker away.and today i saw another one and went in the closet with clothes in it!it likes to eat clothes!and i cant get it out right now as im writing its still in there...HELP!!!!!!!!!!X[

I picked up one of these critters a week ago and he bit me on the pad of my forefinger! Brought blood..just a tiny drop, I treated it as any wound. It got sore as the devil, and still is. A little white spot uner the skin. Should I expect my finger to rot off?
Don

Doubtful, but ask a doctor if you're concerned.

I guess it's good to know I'm not alone. I saw one of these nasty beasts last night when I went down into my basement laundry room. I went to grab a laundry basket and the creepy mutant jumped right in front of me. THANK GOD IT DIDN'T JUMP ON ME! I had NO CLUE what the heck it was! My husband travels internationally all the time so I blamed it on him...thought maybe he brought back some unknown exotic but disgusting critter from South East Asia. So I googled it this morning and found all of your comments which freaks me out even more. I have turned the dehumidifier back on, used some kind of poisonous powder, and set up duct tape traps all over the place. (i also used some insect killer around the outside of the house) I hope and pray this nightmare ends soon!!!!!!!!

GROSS!!!! I first saw these things A few years ago. Upon FREAKING OUT my bro assured me it was just A cricket.. I haven't seen them for A while. But I just moved into A new apartment and went in the basement. I saw 3 just in one trip down there! I'm seriously FREAKED out!! These nasty critters need to go!!! I can't even sleep I'm so creeped out! HELP!!

I put out mouse/rat glue traps and caught a dozen of the crickets. Seems they like the glue. Nasty beasts.

These stories are funny and all but don't really touch on the capability these camel crickets have for nightmare infestations. I'll share two stories in particular that should get your skin crawling.LoL
First, my wife and I were newlyweds and moved into a large home with another couple.(Woodstock,GA) We lived downstairs in the finished basement.Immediately after moving in we started to notice these disgusting buggers on the walls; one or two at a time daily. Each time I would end up chasing the little bastards around with a shoe until I managed to smash them. The agravation of it all ended up with overkill; smashing each one into oblivion and a hole in the wall. After about 2 weeks I had had enough and decided to find the root of the problem. After scanning the walls, I noticed an entrance to the crawl space behind the dresser and a gap in the opening. I quickly moved the dresser,grabbed my spelunking headlamp,unlatched the hook and slowly opened the door. I entered on my hands and knees and went strait in. As I turned my head to view the inner wall my eyes opened wide in disbelief. There were HUNDREDS of them!! On the walls, on top of eachother, everywhere! Before I could get out, the light had startled them enough to begin their frantic jumping and they were all over me. I was able to keep my wits and get out and went strait to the closest home improvement store. I bought a popular brand of the "90 day treatment" in the gallon size container with sprayer. Armed with my new liquid death, I covered myself from head to toe and put on a dust mask and entered the crawl space. I slowly and systematically worked my way around the walls spraying them all creating an incredible ballet of crazed,jumping,dying camel crickets. It was rather enjoyable. When I finished I screwed the door to the crawlspace shut ensuring there were no more gaps. Again, maybe a little over kill but it gave me peace of mind and when after a month there were no sightings, I knew my plan had worked.
Lesson learned: If you keep finding them in your house, check your crawlspace or any other cool, dark, damp areas in your home.

Second story is a bit more disturbing. So from Georgia we moved to Crowley,Texas, just south of Ft.Worth. We bought a ranch style home on a slab. So, whoo hoo!! No crawl space! This however wouldn't prevent my worst experince with these little freaks. It was summer time and about 100 degress. I was doing some lawn work and had grabbed the weedeater from my 6x12 metal shed in the back corner of the yard. After trimming the yard I went back to the shed to grab my push mower as I pulled it out, I noticd a black mass alittle bit bigger than a basket ball in the far corner. Without a light I grabbed the shovel and gave it a poke. An explosion of camel crickets erupted!! They were all huddled together in the corner creating this writhing ball of nastiness. As I jumped out of the shed I noticed them flowing out the sides of the shed. I ran and grabbed a light to investigate and noticed that there were many half eaten dead ones where the center of the ball was as if there was some sort of feeding frenzy going on. I came back the next morining and found that they were no longer in a ball but were covering the walls inside the shed. Additionally it is observed that the local the snake population had taken interest in my shed as there was a large brown snake inside. It was still cool inside the shed so I left the doors open as I had done errouneously the previous day and went back to the home improvement store get the same 90 day treatment I used before. When I returned the Texas heat had arrived and the crickets were no longer on the walls but back in the ball. YEAH BUDDY!! Apparently,from my own observations leaving the door open letting the light and heat in, forced them back to the corner and they may form into a ball to cool off. I must have sprayed half the bottle as there must have been close to 1000 of them in there. I had to remove everything from the shed and emptied many dust pans full of them. While at the store I also bought some of the insulating spray foam and sealed up every crack in the shed to avoid another infestation or snake intrusion. Lesson learned: If you allow your infestations to contiune it will attract larger animals such as carnivorous reptiles who love to snack on crickets. It's real cheap and easy to do it yourself with the right insecticides. Hope you enjoyed!!

I'm still reading to find a solution to get rid of these cave crickets. I can't believe the story about the lady finding one in her kitchen and capturing it only to release it outside. What are you nuts?! Guess what?! where there is one there are 1000 or more!!! I was killing up to 3 a week on the first floor of my colonial style house. I researched them and realized they are living in crawl spaces of my home. Glue boards work! I've caught 60 in less than one month!!!! The amount is alarming and I just want to see the population diminish. What is their life span??? when will I be rid of them?!!! I'm still trying and I'm still trying different products.

There is a product mentioned in this article called Niban. Buy it on this website and put it out per the label instructions. It will help with your camel cricket problem.

As we speak I am perched on a chair with at least one eye on the floor, locked in the "surveillance” phase with one of these wily creatures. I killed what must have been its mate a few days ago in my bathroom and must prevent a revenge attack.

At least once a year I open my shower curtain to find one of these horrors sprawled in the tub. I immediately close the curtain, turn the shower on as hot as it will go and use the shower head to sweep the area. When I turn off the water the insanely long legs and antennae are spread around the drowned corpse, I gather it in an unnecessarily large bundle of toilet paper, and throw it away in another room.

The initial wave is usually over in late July and my mid-August the second wave of invasion takes the form of a tiny excuse of the a cricket which emits an ear splitting screech that causes me to lose at least two nights of sleep before I find and murder it.
This year however has been excessively humid in my area insects of all sorts are sallying forth in record numbers. When I hopefully win this engagement tonight, it will be the third I have fought this season and the sonic engagements have not even begun.