Surprisingly, among pets, there may be a regular cricket. The species and lifestyle of these insects, as well as nutrition, reproduction, content and interesting facts can be found in this article.
History and types of crickets
These insects appeared on the planet about 300 million years ago. They belong to the Orthoptera squad and the True Cricket family, which includes 8 subfamilies. Zoologists currently describe 2300 different species found. About 50 varieties of crickets live in Russia. Of these, the most popular - brownie and field.
Habitat
Crickets are the indigenous people of the Far East and North Africa. But then they spread throughout Europe. A little later appeared in North America and South Australia. Field cricket prefers steppe and forest-steppe zones and mountainous European regions. In the center of Russia, it is most often found in the north of the country, on the border of its range.
In the Tula region, field crickets can be found mainly in the southern strip of serifs, in the Vanevsky, Kimovsky, Efremovsky, Odoevsky, Kurkinsky and Novomoskovsky districts.
Field cricket: habitat and places of resettlement
Crickets are thermophilic insects. They live in places where the temperature reaches at least 20 degrees. At lower, insects become inactive and almost completely cease to feed. In the villages, crickets love places near the stoves in the winter and go to live in nature in the summer. Prefer heat, light and sun. Willingly settle in meadows and fields.
In the mountains, crickets usually choose steep, dry slopes for life, where limestones are exposed or settle on adjacent wastelands and meadows. But where they warm up well. Now crickets are more “modernized” and prefer to live not on stoves, but on livestock farms. There for them, not only warm, but also a lot of food. Or settle in warm basements, boiler rooms and heating mains.
Appearance
The field cricket is very small in size. Body length - from 17 to 23 centimeters. Males are larger than females. Crickets have a large head and a dense body. Mostly they are black in color, but brown are also found. They have short front wings. Field crickets, unlike other types of brothers, are larger. The color is darker, the hips are red and lower on the inside.
Females have a thin ovipositor at the back, extended at the tip. And the legs are reddish in color. Males are distinguished by the presence of a mirror on the elytra. The sound device is similar to that of a grasshopper. But in crickets, it is more complex.
These insects have long antennae and three pairs of legs. The whole body (abdomen, chest and head) is covered with a chitinous strong cuticle. The jaws (mandibles) of crickets are quite powerful. Well developed all the senses - touch, smell and vision. Thanks to the antennae, crickets perfectly capture odors and taste the food.
Field cricket: lifestyle features
He is the only representative of insects to build a nest for himself, in which he lives the whole adult short life. Crickets are by their nature loners. Each individual has its own territory. If it belongs to the male, then he can allow several females to live nearby.
Crickets live in nature in burrows up to 20 centimeters deep and 2 cm wide. Far from their home they never leave. At the slightest danger, a cricket hides in a hole. The entrance to it disguises a bunch of grass. Crickets are very careful and fearful, as they have a lot of enemies - small mammals, birds and lizards.
Fighting technique
When meeting with an unexpected fellow, there is always a fight. These insects protect their territory from invasion. During the fight, they bite. And they try to bite off the antennae or paws of the opponent. Crickets butt on their foreheads, make sharp swoops and kick very hard. True, these insects jump badly, but quickly move on their paws. Despite the fact that crickets feed on plant foods, the defeated opponent is eaten by the winner.
Food
Basically, field crickets feed on plant foods. But periodically, other smaller insects enter the diet. Adult crickets can prey even on small relatives or eat egg laying laid by females. What feeds a captive field cricket? When keeping him at home, he eats crumbs of cheese and bread, milk, slices of various fruits.
Breeding
During the breeding season, the males sit at their minks and call the females with songs. Raising the front wings, the gentleman rubs them. Due to this, it turns out a kind of love serenade in the form of chatter. The female may not be suitable. If the meeting did take place, then soon she lays about 30 testicles in the ground. For the entire breeding period, a total of up to 500.
During mating, a field cricket suspends a spermatophore to the belly of a chosen one, similar to that of grasshoppers. But crickets do not have spermatophilax. When the female begins to lay her eggs, she sticks her ovipositor sheer into the ground. Then it closes the hole, moves to the next place, and the procedure is repeated.
Larvae appear in the period from two to four weeks. And in appearance they already look like adults in miniature. There is no stage of pupation in crickets. Larvae always stick together. During growth, they molt three times. And then they begin to separate. Each cricket begins to dig its own hole and prepare for wintering.
On the surface after winter, a young field cricket is selected in spring, when the temperature reaches +4 degrees. The last time the molt occurs, and after it the insects become adults. Then begins a new breeding season.
Content
There are people who contain crickets at home in insectariums (special kindergartens). They are mainly made of plastic. One kindergarten can accommodate hundreds of crickets. It is important to provide enough food and water, as well as maintain a temperature comfortable for these insects. It is necessary to include protein food in the diet. Crickets are happy to eat dry food for aquarium fish - gammarus or daphnia. If the insect does not have enough protein feed, then they will begin to eat their weaker counterparts.
How to get rid of crickets
How to destroy the field cricket living at home? There are several ways to do this:
- You can use a natural trap. Condensed milk is poured into a small container. It mixes with water and is placed next to the place where the cricket lives. Attracted by the smell, the insect jumps into the prepared syrup.
- Chemical trap. It is used indoors if there are no pets or small children in the house.
- Adhesive strips. They are located at the windows, on doors and walls. Insects stick to them.
- Spray. Any insect repellent can be used, even Dichlorvos. But spray such sprays should be if there are no children or pets at home.
- Some use a conventional vacuum cleaner to destroy crickets. You need to change or remove the nozzle and go through all the corners in the house. In this way, even unborn offspring can be exterminated.
Ecology is important for breeding crickets. Field cricket eats not only plant foods, but also eats smaller counterparts. And even the corpses of insects, since crickets need protein. But they can also cause considerable harm due to their indefatigable appetite. Crickets eat any plants and their roots. Therefore, sometimes the owners of cottages have to get rid of the invasion of "singers". There are several ways to do this:
- the use of integrated measures - chemical and agricultural;
- normal loosening of the earth helps a lot;
- the site can be treated with biological products "Anthony-F" or "Nemabakt";
- establish birdhouses or bird feeders on the site;
- very well help in the fight of snakes (these are enemies of crickets);
- after harvesting in the fall, you need to clean the site, cleaning it of pieces of wood, chips and film debris to prevent the wintering of crickets under them;
- boxing lures can be used;
- wormwood can simply be laid out between the beds or water the ground with a decoction made from this grass;
- You can sprinkle the ground at the stems with hot hot pepper.
Cricket fights "without rules"
The aggressiveness of male crickets gave rise to an unusual gambling spectacle - fights. There is a version that they came up with in China about 1000 years ago, during the reign of Sun. But cricket fights were no less successful also in Thailand and Malaysia.
To do this, insects were caught in late summer. Then the male crickets were released into the mini-arena. They instantly began to fight, to the end. The loser was thrown out of the arena, fled from it or his opponent killed him. The winner was even given a certain rank.
Such cricket fights were very expensive, the stakes on them were very high. The remains of the winners were then stored in silver mini-coffins. During life, specially hired people looked after combat crickets. Insects sat on a specially designed diet, and with a cold they were even given medications. To raise their tone and morale, crickets were brought daily for 2 hours to females.
They kept fighting insects in special semi-precious houses or in a pumpkin or bamboo hollowed out from the inside. Sometimes cages were made of ivory or tortoise shell. The most beautiful houses were available only in the imperial palaces.
