Asian Camel Crickets Invade Homes in Eastern United States

Posted on December 14, 2014

The Asian Camel Cricket is now considered common in homes in the eastern United States. Researchers at North Carolina State University made the determination after studying the spread of the cricket. The crickets have long spiky legs.

The researchers say the crickets are not a threat to humans and they don't bite. However, they will eat just about anything. The NC State researchers say the Asian camel crickets even sometimes eat each other. The cricket is also known as the greenhouse camel cricket (Diestrammena asynamora).

The researchers conducted a survey asking the public to check their home for cave crickets and send in photographs or mail in specimens. The researchers found that the most common cricket reported was the greenhouse camel cricket. 90% of respondents had this cricket living in their homes.

Jane Epps, a postdoctoral researcher at NC State and lead author of the study, says in a statement, "We don't know what kind of impact this species has on local ecosystems though it's possible that the greenhouse camel cricket could be driving out native camel cricket species in homes."

The researchers also discovered that a second Asian cricket species, Diestrammena japanica, is also showing up in homes of Northeast U.S. residents. The research paper, "Too big to be noticed: cryptic invasion of Asian camel crickets in North American houses," can be found here.



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