Sprickets, the common nickname for camel crickets (also called cave crickets), eat just about anything organic they can find. They’re omnivorous scavengers that primarily feed on fungus, decaying plant material, dead insects, and other decomposing organic matter. If they’ve moved into your basement, their diet expands to include some things you’d rather they left alone.
Their Natural Diet Outdoors
In the wild, sprickets are detritivores, meaning they survive mainly on decaying material. Their core diet includes fungus, bits of decomposing plants and animals, and the occasional live insect. They hang out under logs, stones, leaf litter, and firewood stacks where moisture keeps organic material breaking down. They play a useful role in the ecosystem by shredding larger pieces of decaying matter into smaller fragments that even tinier organisms can process.
Sprickets are nocturnal, doing most of their foraging at night. Their long legs and antennae help them navigate dark environments like caves, hollow logs, and dense ground cover. They don’t have wings and they don’t chirp like regular crickets. They just hop around in the dark, eating whatever rotting material they stumble across.
What They Eat Inside Your Home
When sprickets move indoors, they’re following moisture. Basements, crawlspaces, bathrooms, laundry rooms, and garages give them the damp conditions they need. Their primary food source inside your home is fungus growing on damp walls and floors, which is why they cluster in the most humid spots they can find.
When fungus isn’t available, they get creative. Sprickets will chew on carpet, cardboard, wood, and paper products. They can damage fabrics by gnawing through fibers, even though they can’t actually digest keratin (the protein in wool and similar materials). They’re also drawn to pet food, especially cat litter, which they apparently love. Basically, if it’s organic and accessible, a hungry spricket will try eating it.
Sprickets Eat Each Other
One of the more surprising facts about sprickets is that they’re cannibalistic. They’ll eat smaller camel crickets when the opportunity presents itself. Females of at least one species practice sexual cannibalism, sometimes eating the head of a male while he’s still alive. This tends to happen when the female is hungry and the male is weak. In studies where males were housed with large groups of females, researchers later found the males reduced to hollow shells with all the soft tissue consumed.
This cannibalistic tendency actually intensifies in the crowded conditions you’d find during a basement infestation. When their preferred food sources run low, they turn on each other.
How Their Diet Connects to Moisture
Everything sprickets eat ties back to water. Fungus needs moisture to grow. Decaying matter stays soft and edible in damp environments. Sprickets themselves are highly dependent on humidity to survive, which is why you’ll never find them in dry, well-ventilated spaces. They get much of their hydration directly from the moist foods they consume and from the humid air around them. Place a shallow container of water in a room with sprickets, and they’ll be drawn to it so strongly they’ll fall in and drown.
Reducing Food Sources to Control Them
Understanding what sprickets eat is the most practical way to get rid of them. Since their primary indoor food is fungus growing on damp surfaces, the single most effective step is reducing moisture. A dehumidifier in your basement, proper ventilation in crawlspaces, and fixing any water leaks removes both their food and their habitat. Without damp conditions, the fungus they depend on can’t grow.
Beyond moisture control, remove the secondary food sources that keep them fed when fungus runs short. Store cardboard boxes off the floor or switch to plastic bins. Keep pet food in sealed containers, and don’t leave cat litter exposed in areas where you’ve seen sprickets. Clear firewood, leaf piles, and debris away from your home’s foundation to eliminate the outdoor staging areas where they gather before finding their way inside. Once you cut off what they eat and drink, sprickets have very little reason to stick around.