Getting rid of crickets outside comes down to making your yard less hospitable to them while targeting the population directly. Crickets thrive in moist, cluttered environments with plenty of hiding spots and are drawn to certain types of light at night. A combination of habitat changes, natural treatments, and targeted barriers will dramatically reduce their numbers.
Remove What Attracts Them
Crickets need moisture, shelter, and food. Tall grass, leaf litter, woodpiles, dense mulch beds, and ground-level debris all provide ideal hiding spots during the day. Start by clearing any piles of wood, stones, or yard waste that sit against or near your home’s foundation. Keep your lawn mowed short and rake up leaf accumulation, especially in shaded areas where moisture lingers.
Overly damp soil is a magnet for crickets. If you water your lawn in the evening, switch to morning irrigation so the ground has time to dry before nightfall, when crickets are most active. Fix leaky outdoor faucets and ensure gutters drain away from the foundation rather than pooling near it. Reducing standing moisture near your home cuts off one of the primary reasons crickets congregate there.
Switch Your Outdoor Lighting
Standard white and blue-toned outdoor lights pull crickets (and many other insects) straight to your doors and windows. Blue and ultraviolet wavelengths are particularly attractive to flying and jumping insects. Research from UCLA confirmed that yellow or amber-filtered LED light attracts significantly fewer insects compared to white or cool-toned LEDs.
Swap porch lights and landscape fixtures to warm amber or yellow LED bulbs. Use the dimmest setting that still meets your needs, and turn off lights you don’t need overnight. If possible, position lights away from entryways so that any insects they do attract gather farther from your home rather than right at the door. This single change can noticeably reduce the number of crickets congregating around your house each night.
Apply Diatomaceous Earth Around Your Yard
Food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE) is one of the most effective natural options for killing crickets outdoors. It’s a fine powder made from fossilized algae. When crickets crawl through it, the microscopic particles cling to their exoskeleton and cut through the waxy outer layer, causing them to dehydrate and die. Because it works physically rather than chemically, crickets can’t develop resistance to it.
Apply a thin, even layer using a hand duster or shaker along your home’s foundation, around door frames and window edges, and through mulch beds or garden borders where crickets tend to hide. The key is a light dusting, not thick piles. Thick clumps are actually less effective because crickets will walk around them instead of through them. The main drawback is that DE loses its effectiveness when wet, so you’ll need to reapply after rain or heavy morning dew.
Create a Chemical Perimeter Barrier
For heavier infestations, a perimeter insecticide spray provides longer-lasting control. Products containing bifenthrin are widely used for outdoor cricket control and are available at most home improvement stores. The standard approach is to spray a band of soil and vegetation up to 7 feet wide around your home’s foundation, plus the foundation wall itself up to about 2 feet high. This creates a treated zone that crickets must cross to reach your house.
Mix according to the product label. A lower concentration works for moderate activity, while the higher end of the labeled rate gives faster results and longer residual protection for heavy infestations. Apply to exterior siding, foundations, porches, window frames, eaves, garage entries, fence lines, and any other areas where you’ve noticed cricket activity. Reapply based on the product’s labeled schedule, typically every few months during warm weather. Avoid spraying surfaces that drain directly into storm drains or waterways.
Dealing With Mole Crickets in Your Lawn
If your problem isn’t chirping field crickets but rather brown, patchy damage spreading across your lawn, you may be dealing with mole crickets. These subterranean insects tunnel through soil and feed on grass roots, stems, and leaves. You can confirm their presence by looking for small mounds of loose soil and spongy, raised tunnels just below the surface. Affected turf pulls up easily because the roots have been chewed away.
Timing matters more with mole crickets than with most pests. Late June is the ideal window for treatment because by then the current generation of nymphs has fully hatched, and the young crickets are small and vulnerable. For early-season control in June and July, most granular lawn insecticides labeled for mole crickets will work well. Later in the season, from August through October, mole crickets are larger and actively foraging, so bait formulations tend to be more effective since the crickets will seek out and consume the bait. The worst lawn damage typically happens during this late-season period when the insects are fully grown and feeding aggressively.
Combine Methods for Lasting Results
No single approach eliminates outdoor crickets permanently. They’re a natural part of the outdoor ecosystem, and new crickets will move in from surrounding areas. The most effective strategy layers multiple tactics: reduce moisture and clutter to make your yard less attractive, switch to amber lighting to stop drawing them in at night, apply DE or a perimeter spray to kill those that do show up, and seal any cracks or gaps in your foundation to keep survivors from moving indoors.
Check your perimeter treatments every few weeks during peak cricket season, which runs from late spring through early fall in most regions. Reapply DE after storms and refresh chemical barriers on the schedule your product recommends. Most people find that consistent upkeep over one full season drops cricket numbers to a level that’s barely noticeable by the following year.