Sprickets, the nickname for camel crickets (also called spider crickets or cave crickets), thrive in damp, dark spaces like basements, crawl spaces, and garages. Getting rid of them requires a combination of moisture reduction, trapping, and sealing entry points. Because these insects depend on humidity to survive, drying out your home is the single most effective long-term strategy.
What Sprickets Are and Why They’re in Your Home
Sprickets are wingless, humpbacked insects with long, spider-like legs that make them look like a cross between a spider and a cricket. They don’t chirp like regular crickets, and they don’t bite. What they do is jump, sometimes directly at you, which is their defensive response to being startled rather than any attempt to attack.
They end up indoors because they’re seeking moisture and darkness. In nature, they live in caves, leaf litter, and rotting logs. Your basement or crawl space mimics that environment perfectly. They feed on fungi that grow on damp walls, plus anything organic they can find: cardboard, fabric, paper, mold, dead insects, and even each other when food runs low. A large enough population can damage stored clothing, curtains, linens, and cardboard boxes, though small numbers are mostly just a nuisance.
Cut the Moisture First
Moisture is the single most important factor in whether sprickets can survive in your home. Without damp conditions, they can’t sustain themselves or the mold they feed on. This is where long-term control starts.
Run a dehumidifier in your basement or crawl space and keep it running consistently during humid months. Properly ventilate crawl spaces and basements with vents or fans to keep air moving. Fix any plumbing leaks, even small drips under sinks or around water heaters. If water pools near your foundation after rain, regrade the soil or extend downspouts to direct water away from the house.
Outside, keep mulch, ground covers, and shrubs pulled back from the foundation wall. These landscaping elements trap moisture right where sprickets like to congregate before finding their way inside. Mow weeds and tall grass next to the building, and move wood piles away from entrances.
Trap the Ones Already Inside
Sticky traps are the simplest and most effective way to catch sprickets that are already living in your space. You can buy standard mouse glue traps at any hardware store, or make your own by laying strips of duct tape sticky-side up.
Bait makes a big difference. A piece of dry cat food on the trap works well, but almost any food will do. Here’s the interesting part: once the first cricket gets stuck, the others will swarm the trap trying to eat it, even before it’s dead. Sprickets are opportunistic cannibals, so one catch tends to snowball into many. Place traps along walls, in corners, near floor drains, behind water heaters, and anywhere you’ve spotted them. Check and replace the traps every few days.
If you have a serious infestation in a crawl space, you may need dozens of traps to make a noticeable dent. Combine trapping with the moisture and exclusion strategies below for the traps to have lasting impact.
Seal Entry Points
Sprickets get inside through gaps around foundation walls, basement windows, utility pipes, dryer vents, and door sweeps that don’t sit flush with the ground. Walk the perimeter of your home and look for any opening large enough to fit a pencil tip through.
Use silicone caulk for cracks in the foundation and around window frames. Expanding foam works well for larger gaps around pipes and wiring that penetrate exterior walls. Replace or add door sweeps on any exterior doors, especially garage doors, which often have wide gaps at the bottom corners. Basement window wells are another common entry point. Covering them with fitted well covers keeps sprickets (and debris) out.
Treat With Dust and Sprays for Heavy Infestations
For mild problems, moisture control and traps are usually enough. But if you’re dealing with large numbers, especially in a crawl space, chemical treatments can help knock the population down while your environmental changes take effect.
Diatomaceous earth (the food-grade version) is a fine powder that damages the waxy coating on insect exoskeletons, causing them to dry out and die. Dust it lightly along baseboards, in corners, around the perimeter of crawl spaces, and behind appliances. It works slowly but remains effective as long as it stays dry. Wear a dust mask when applying it, because the fine particles can irritate your lungs.
Boric acid works similarly and can be applied in the same locations. Both are low-toxicity options compared to conventional insecticides, but keep them out of reach of children and pets.
For more aggressive treatment, perimeter sprays applied around the outside foundation of your home create a barrier that kills sprickets before they get inside. A five-foot band of treated area around the structure is the standard approach. Inside, spraying baseboards and using crack-and-crevice aerosols in hidden spaces (behind furniture, inside wall voids, around utility openings) targets the spots where sprickets hide during the day. Crawl spaces with active infestations often need insecticidal dust applied broadly, since sprays alone won’t reach every crevice.
Protect Stored Items
Sprickets will gnaw on fabrics, cardboard, and paper products, so anything stored in your basement or garage is a potential food source. Switch from cardboard boxes to sealed plastic bins with tight-fitting lids. This removes both a food source and a hiding spot.
Stack storage containers on pallets or shelving rather than directly on the floor, and keep them pulled away from the walls. This reduces the dark, still-air pockets where sprickets like to shelter and makes it easier to spot (and trap) any that remain.
What to Expect Over Time
Sprickets won’t disappear overnight. Traps will start catching them immediately, but the population takes weeks to decline noticeably, especially if you have a crawl space with a large established colony. The moisture reduction strategies are what prevent them from coming back season after season. Once humidity drops and their fungal food source dries up, the space becomes inhospitable and new sprickets won’t establish themselves even if a few wander in from outside.
If you’ve done all of the above and still see large numbers after a month or two, the infestation may be centered in an area you can’t easily access or treat, like deep inside wall voids or an unsealed crawl space. At that point, a pest control professional can identify the harborage site and apply treatments in spaces that are difficult to reach on your own.