I love nothing more than climbing into bed at night and having a peaceful night’s rest.
Unfortunately, I’ve had a male cricket outside my window serenading his future wifey for the past two weeks.
Don’t get me wrong, listening to the sounds of nature at night can be beautiful, but when you have a cricket keeping your whole family up, night after night, it just gets a bit much.
Adamant that I would get a good night’s rest, I decided to contact a local pest control technician for some great ideas on how to get rid of cricket noise at night.
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How to get Rid of Cricket Noise at Night
The best way to get rid of cricket noise at night is to trap the crickets and give them to local pet centers. You can also repel and eradicate them with essential oils. Making your own pesticides from simple ingredients is also a great way to silence crickets. Consider attracting cricket predators to your garden and let nature take its course. Other methods include changing your outdoor lights to yellow lights, regularly cleaning your garden, and using white noise to block out the chirping.
7 Best Ways to Get Rid of Cricket Noise at Night
For such small insects, crickets can make a big noise at night. Their insistent chirping plays a considerable role in sleepless nights.
Fortunately, there are a few simple ways that you can get rid of cricket noise at night:
Method 1: Catch Them and Trap Them
The best way to trap a cricket is to try and pinpoint the general area that the chirping is coming from.
Once you have identified the place, lay your cricket trap (a bowl of honey or a beer can on its side also works well) on the ground.
Use one or two of these tempting materials to lure the crickets in, such as:
- Rotting leaves and plants
- A piece of moldy bread
- Fruit
- Honey
- Wet cardboard
Once the cricket has taken the bait, they will get stuck to the sticky floor and can’t move.
You can discard the trap and the crickets or give them to a local pet center as food for reptiles.
Method 2: Use Essential Oils
Undiluted essential oils are an excellent way of repelling and even eliminating crickets (among other insects).
The smell is strong enough to kill a cricket. There are several essential oils that work wonders:
- Thyme
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Peppermint
- Cinnamon
- Lemon
- Eugenol (made from the oil of cloves)
Pour your essential oil of choice into a small spray bottle and spray the oil onto the area where you suspect the crickets are living.
You will not need to spray much as the undiluted oils have a very strong smell that will send the crickets crawling away.
Method 3: DIY Pesticides
Making your own pesticides at home is a simple and effective way of safely getting rid of crickets. The majority of the pesticide chemicals should already be in your house.
Here are two great recipes that you can try at home:
- Dish Wash Liquid Spray
Dish wash liquid spray works very well in eliminating crickets.
I found this spray to be exceptionally successful as I have a brick house, and the crickets like to hide in between the cracks.
You will need:
- ½ gallon of warm water
- 2-3 drops of liquid soap
- 1 spray bottle
Mix all the ingredients in the spray bottle, and spray vigorously over the areas you hear the chirping.
The soapy water blocks the small breathing holes on the sides of the cricket’s body (spiracles), which ultimately suffocates them.
- Salt and Vinegar Spray
A sure way to kill a cricket in less than a minute is to use a spray made from salt and vinegar. If you don’t have any vinegar on hand, lemon juice will suffice.
You will need:
- 4 ounces of vinegar or lemon juice
- 8 ounces of water
- 1 spray bottle
- 2 tablespoons of salt
Fill your bottle with the mixture and shake well. Spray the mix over the area where the crickets are hiding, and the mixture will eliminate any crickets it comes into contact with.
Method 4: Cricket Predators should be introduced
Many animals eat crickets, and attracting them to your garden is a natural way to eliminate the cricket noises at night.
Let’s look at some of these fantastic predators and the ways you can attract them to your garden:
- Frogs
Attract frogs to your garden by digging out a small pound and creating a suitable environment for them to breed. Frogs will definitely keep the cricket population down.
- Birds
Purchase a few bird feeders to place around your garden. This is guaranteed to attract all kinds of birds that will enjoy eating the crickets.
- Cats
Adopt a cat or a kitten. Although crickets aren’t something a cat would necessarily eat, they enjoy the hunt, so catching crickets is a fun sport for them.
Method 5: Regularly Clean Your Garden
Crickets like to hide in humid, damp, dark, and quiet spots during the day. A pile of rotting leaves or a compost heap is the perfect breeding ground for crickets.
Make sure to keep your garden clean and eliminate any areas that could serve as a hiding spot.
Method 6: Shed Some Light
Crickets are drawn to white light at night for unexplained reasons. Change your outdoor light bulbs to yellow light bulbs.
The yellow light does not attract crickets. Turning off your outdoor lights will also help minimize the chirping at night.
Method 7: Use White Noise
If you aren’t happy eliminating crickets, you could always filter out the sound of the crickets at night, consider employing a white noise machine.
The machine provides a pleasant swishing sound, which will also help you sleep better.
Frequently Asked Questions About Getting Rid of Cricket Noise at Night
How can you silence a cricket that you can’t locate?
The best way to get rid of cricket noise at night is to put down a trap in the general vicinity of the chirping. The cricket should take the bait and get stuck inside the trap. This will help you eliminate the noise, even though you can’t see the cricket.
Do crickets chirp all night?
Some crickets chirp all night until they find a mate. Crickets also rely on vibrations to alert them if a predator is near. If predators are in the area, the cricket will go quiet until the predator has moved away. Once the cricket feels it’s safe, they will begin chirping again.
The Final Chirp
Once a cricket has decided to choose your windowpane as a stage for their chirping, you definitely will not be getting a good night’s rest.
These simple suggestions helped me completely eradicate my cricket problem, and I keep a bottle of dish liquid spray close at hand in case any other cricket decides to join the choir.