For several weeks now, we’ve had some nasty little friends living in our basement which have been wreaking havoc on me. One day, I went downstairs to do some laundry when I spotted a rather large spider but when I got closer I realized it was not a spider at all. I knew this because it jumped at me and nearly made me faint from fear. We figured they were some kind of cricket but not like any we’ve seen before, and I have no idea why they chose our basement to live in. So for the past few weeks, I have lived in fear and just about every time that I descended into the basement one of those nasty things would be waiting for me. And for some reason, they jump AT you instead of AWAY from you. Chris has become very skilled at killing them.
I finally broke down and did some internet searching, which turned out to be quite easy. I just googled “crickets in basement” and the first thing that appears is a bunch of information on Camel Crickets, also known as Spider Crickets. Oh great. Just what a person who is deathly afraid of spiders needs.
Apparently they also go by the name of Cave Crickets because they live in caves, which I guess our basement appears to be to them. Normally they don’t breed in basements, but the ones we have appear to be doing so. Chris has killed several tiny baby crickets. My parents tried telling me that we should catch them and release them outside. No way, Jose. You couldn’t pay me enough money to do that. Plus, they probably would just come right back. They thrive in dark, stony, damp places- which perfectly describes our basement.
Luckily they are harmless and I’m hoping the much cooler weather we’ve been having will get rid of them naturally because I’m really tired of being attacked every time I want to do a load of laundry.
You should order some of the do-it-yourself pest control. That's what we do. We still see a lot of bugs, but they're dead when we see them. Then we release them back in the wild--they appreciate that.
ReplyDeleteThat would scare me too. I HATE spiders, and any bug that tries to jump at me. I hope they go away soon. I would get a spray or something to hurry the process along.
ReplyDeleteI would pretty much stop doing laundry if those lurked in the shadows...much less jumped straight at me! Seriously, it takes so much for me to be motivated to do laundry period without adding bugs....so you're pretty much my hero.
ReplyDeleteYikes!From the picture it looks like they have a stinger.-- Sounds like Chris doesn't charge you a fee for killing those gross things. Back in the day he charged a 1$ per insect.
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