House Cricket

The house cricket, Acheta domesticus, is native to southwestern Asia but has been carried around the world through trade and, more recently, through the commercial insect-rearing industry, where it is one of the most widely farmed crickets for animal feed. In warm climates it can establish outdoor populations, while in cooler regions it is more often found around buildings, garbage areas, and other heated or sheltered spots.

Adults have a light tan to straw-colored body marked with three darker crossbands on the head, distinguishing them from the darker field crickets they are often confused with. Like other true crickets, males produce a loud, persistent chirping song by rubbing modified veins on their forewings together.

House crickets are omnivorous scavengers that will feed on almost any available organic material, a trait that makes them adaptable both in the wild and in commercial rearing facilities, where they are raised in enormous numbers as feed for reptiles, birds, and other captive animals.

• Light tan to yellowish-brown body, 16–22 mm long
• Three distinct dark bands across the top of the head
• Long, slender antennae and well-developed jumping hind legs
• Fully winged in adults, with wings folded flat over the abdomen
• Lookalikes: field crickets are darker overall and lack the head banding; camel crickets are wingless and humpbacked

Native to warm regions of Asia, house crickets have spread through human commerce to many parts of the world. They favor warm, sheltered environments and in temperate climates are most often found around buildings, refuse areas, greenhouses, and dumps, while outdoor populations persist year-round in warmer climates. They are also raised in massive numbers in commercial breeding facilities.

House crickets are highly adaptable omnivorous scavengers, feeding on decaying plant and animal matter, fabric, and stored food products when they gain access indoors. Males sing to attract females and establish territory, producing a continuous chirp louder and higher-pitched than that of many field crickets. Because of their prolific breeding and easy rearing, house crickets have become a foundational species in the pet and research feeder-insect trade, in addition to their role as opportunistic wild scavengers.

Females deposit eggs in moist soil or substrate using a long ovipositor, with a single female capable of laying hundreds of eggs over her lifetime. Nymphs hatch resembling miniature wingless adults and pass through roughly ten molts over several weeks to months, developing wings only at the final molt into adulthood. In warm conditions, whether outdoors in tropical climates or in climate-controlled breeding facilities, house crickets can complete multiple generations per year.