Jumpy bugs. Hippity Hops. Cave crickets.
That's just some of the names local residents have given to these critters that have invaded their homes, particularly in basements. Their actual name is Rhaphidophoridae, but they are commonly called camel crickets because of their "humpbacked appearance," according to North Carolina University's Department of Entomology Web site.
Unlike field crickets, these strange-looking creatures have no wings and they do not chirp, but they can jump very high, which they usually do when they are startled. For instance, when they detect, using their antennae, that someone is approaching or if a shoe is thrown at them.
Ii have them in my basement, and boy do they jump," Patch reader Michelle Rydowski Moscola wrote on Wantagh-Seaford Patch's Facebook page on Tuesday when residents were asked if they have them in their homes.
Many readers wrote back expressing their disgust of the crickets and ways that they have tried to get rid of them.
Denise Fescina Goban said she considers herself "a pro" at getting rid of the unwanted bugs with glue boards.
"[Glue boards] catch anything from ants to small mice. (I do not have mice, but there is a picture of one on the packaging)," Goban wrote. "They work great!"
Margo LeBarbara Colarossi said she bought sticky inspect pad but do come with a down side.
"Sticky insect pads that I bought from Lowe's work great but then you are left with a pad full of gross dead camel crickets," Colarossi wrote. "But hey it works and they are relatively inexpensive as opposed to having an exterminator spray."
Allison Ali Campelo said her choice of action against the bugs has been a spray called Ortho Home Defense."
"It seems to be helping," she wrote. "I hate those nasty things and can not deal with the in my home!"
Do you have these critters in your home? Tell us about it and what's worked (or not worked) for you? To see what else readers had to say about camel crickets click here.
