Bug of the Week: Indian House Crickets

Indian house crickets (Gryllodes sigillatus) are getting around. Of Asian origin, they have moved into in warm areas throughout the world, including Australia and the southwestern US. These crickets are called house crickets because of their tendency to aggregate around the foundations of houses. In some areas they also are called tropical house crickets.

Indian house cricket

This house cricket was hiding under a flower pot. They usually hide during the day and come out at night.

Indian house cricket

House crickets are normally beige with darker brown bands. Recently I found this light-colored individual. Do you think it is an albino, a case of leucism (like the bird in the post last week), or is it light-colored due to something else?

6 Comments

  1. candy

    I just bought a bag of large crickets and found one that was white all over. I nicknamed him “angel cricket”. What does this mean? Could he be just a baby?

  2. Roberta

    Your white cricket probably just shed its outer skin in order to grow. Bug people call that “molting.” In a few days, it will darken up and match the rest of the crickets. That is, until another one molts. Then you will have another white cricket for a few days.

    Crickets can be a lot of fun to watch. Enjoy!

  3. candy

    The first time I bought crickets was for food milipedes. When I got home I realized that these were too big for the millies. So I was tempted to release the crickets,but I didn’t want to since they’d been “domesticated”. I played some classical music and made a little habitat with plants,water and food. They looked like a happy big family. For days they would play,eat and chill. And they just LOVE paper towel tubes. LOL! Yes, these are fun little buggies.

  4. Roberta

    Oh, wait until they lay eggs and have babies. Then you’ll really be hooked.

  5. Kelvin

    I have a redback spider in a tank. I’ve always caught the crickets for food but I have another tank I think I’ll put some crickets in. Wat do they eat and do they need water?

  6. Roberta

    You can find cricket food in pet stores, but for your purposes probably a few kibbles of cat or dog food would do.

    The crickets do need water. A small bottle cap with water in the container should work. For more information, here’s a link to a fact sheet on rearing crickets.

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