Crickets come indoors chasing three things: light, moisture, and shelter from extreme weather. The specific combination depends on which type of cricket you’re dealing with, but addressing even one of these attractants can make a noticeable difference.
Light Is the Biggest Draw
House crickets and field crickets are strongly attracted to light, especially at night. White, neon, and mercury vapor bulbs are the worst offenders. If you have bright porch lights, floodlights, or illuminated house numbers near doors and windows, you’re essentially advertising to every cricket in your yard.
Switching to yellow bulbs or warm LED bulbs helps significantly. In one study comparing six common residential bulb types, standard incandescent bulbs attracted roughly 8 insects per hour, while yellow bulbs and warm LEDs each attracted about 4.5, cutting the draw nearly in half. Cool white LEDs fell somewhere in between. The effect is consistent across most insect groups, though it varies by species. For crickets specifically, reducing the amount of light visible from outside your home at night, whether by switching bulb color, using motion-activated fixtures, or simply drawing blinds, removes one of their strongest triggers.
Moisture Pulls Them Deeper Inside
If light gets crickets to your doorstep, moisture is what keeps them inside. Camel crickets in particular seek out cool, damp spaces. They gravitate toward basements, crawl spaces, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and garages. House crickets do the same, though they’re less moisture-dependent than camel crickets.
Common indoor moisture sources include unfinished basements with dirt floors, water leaks behind walls or under tubs, high humidity in below-grade rooms, and poor ventilation in crawl spaces. The EPA recommends keeping indoor humidity below 60%, ideally between 30% and 50%. A dehumidifier in the basement or crawl space directly addresses one of the conditions that makes your home appealing to crickets, along with other moisture-loving pests like centipedes, spiders, and millipedes.
Outdoor moisture matters just as much. Mulch piled against your foundation holds water right next to entry points. Landscaping plants, especially low-growing ground covers like ivy, create humid microclimates where crickets hide during the day. Clogged gutters, improperly pitched window sills, and poor drainage all keep the soil around your foundation wet. Creating a 3- to 6-foot gap between plants and your home’s exterior and pulling mulch away from the foundation eliminates prime cricket habitat right where it matters most.
Extreme Weather Drives Them Indoors
Cricket invasions tend to spike during weather extremes. Extended hot, dry stretches push crickets toward the cooler, more humid conditions inside your home. Excessive rainfall does the same by flooding their outdoor hiding spots under logs, stones, and leaf litter. Late summer and early fall are peak season, as temperatures begin to shift and crickets that matured over the summer are fully grown and actively looking for food and shelter.
Field crickets are the ones you’ll hear chirping. They typically live outdoors but move inside when conditions outside become inhospitable. Camel crickets are silent, hump-backed, and tend to startle people by jumping erratically. They’re more likely to establish themselves in basements and crawl spaces long-term, since they thrive in darkness and don’t need the warmth that house crickets prefer.
Food Sources That Keep Crickets Around
Crickets are omnivores and not picky ones. Indoors, they’ll feed on crumbs, pet food, fabric, paper, cardboard, and even other dead insects. House crickets can damage clothing, curtains, and upholstery over time, particularly items made of cotton, silk, or wool. Camel crickets are less destructive but will still chew on stored items in basements and garages.
Keeping food sealed, cleaning up crumbs, and storing pet food in airtight containers removes a reason for crickets to stay once they’ve wandered in. Reducing clutter in basements and storage areas also eliminates hiding spots, since crickets are nocturnal and spend daylight hours tucked into dark, undisturbed spaces.
How They Get In
Crickets don’t need much of an opening. A gap of 1/16 inch under a door is enough for insects to slip through, and most exterior doors have far larger gaps than that. The most common entry points are the bottoms of exterior doors (especially the corners), gaps around pipes and wires where they pass through the foundation, torn window screens, openings around dryer vents and gas meters, and spaces under sliding glass doors.
Sealing these entry points is the most permanent fix. Door sweeps on all exterior doors block the easiest access route. Silicone or acrylic latex caulk works well for cracks around windows, doors, and fascia boards. Gaps around utility lines can be filled with expandable foam, caulk, or copper mesh. For sliding glass doors, a strip of foam weatherstripping along the bottom track closes the gap. Checking for torn or missing window screens is worth the five minutes it takes.
Reducing Cricket Attraction Step by Step
Because crickets respond to multiple attractants at once, the most effective approach layers several changes together:
- Lighting: Switch outdoor bulbs to yellow or warm LED. Turn off unnecessary exterior lights at night or use motion sensors. Close blinds to reduce light escaping through windows.
- Moisture control: Run a dehumidifier in basements and crawl spaces to keep humidity under 60%. Fix any leaks. Clean gutters and ensure water drains away from the foundation.
- Landscaping: Pull mulch and ground cover plants at least 3 feet from the foundation. Remove stacked firewood, stones, and debris near the house.
- Sealing: Install door sweeps, caulk cracks around windows and doors, seal utility openings, and repair damaged screens.
- Indoor housekeeping: Store food and pet food in sealed containers. Reduce cardboard and clutter in basements and garages.
For persistent problems, an insecticide barrier sprayed along the foundation perimeter, around door frames, and near utility openings can supplement sealing efforts. Products containing synthetic pyrethroids are widely available at hardware stores and are applied in a band 2 to 6 feet wide along the ground and 2 to 3 feet up the foundation wall.