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PostPosted: Mon Sep 01, 2003 3:49 pm 
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I live south of DFW in the country. The crickets have already become over whelming. I live in an old house that is NEAT and about 100 years old. Still remodeling and the crickets seem to find all the cracks.
Anyone have a fast way to curtail them. Can I spray orange oil out side on a hose sprayer. Can any one tell me how much oil to use in a bottle on hose end sprayer. Any other FAST solutions. What about how to curtail and kill them crawling inside. Some times I look to the floor and there are two or three and if I move then under somthing they go. UKKKK!!! HELP PLEASE,
AL


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 02, 2003 12:27 am 
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You need help badly. We had a local auto dealer get a building infested with crickets. They had to destroy the building after the exterminator killed them all. The smell was unbelievable and would not go away.

Somehow you need to get them out of the house before you kill them. How about if you bring in 10 or 20 rats to eat them? Just kidding, maybe. Frogs? Ducks! That's what you need!!

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 Post subject: Crickets
PostPosted: Fri Sep 05, 2003 1:54 pm 
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THANKS DAVE for the encourage ment about bring in rats. Have cats to keep out the rats and mice but they are out side cats. Seems like some out side help is arriving. last two mornings the COW BIRDS the white ones that hang around cows. Not sure if they are called Egrets or what. Have arrived in the back part of the two acres. Think they are feasting early in the morning. I am glad to see them but they are not coming in the cyclone fence with the German Shephard.
I went to the dollar store and bought just a 33 ounce bottle of $1.00 orange cleaner. Doesn't say what is in it other than orange oil. A spray or two and the crickets CROKE and can be picked up. But often they escape before can spray. I THINK THE BEST THING I CAN DO IS STOP THEM OUT SIDE. I DO KNOW THAT BAD SMELL OF DEAD CRICKETS.
What about ORANGE OIL SPRAY AROUND THE HOUSE INSIDE THE FENCE TO SLOW THEM DOWN AND KILL THEM.
WHAT do I need to do or mixture of orange oil to get that going.
ANY AND ALL HELP APPRECIATED


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PostPosted: Sat Sep 06, 2003 8:28 am 
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I lived in New York City for several years, and in some of the older buildings there it was difficult to rid your apartment of pests if they were able to pop in from the neighbors' place. One of the innovative solutions to roaches and waterbugs (and I think would translate well to crickets) was to have a lizard or lizards in the apartment. You do have to be careful not to step on them, and best not to keep cats if they'll prey on the lizards. The main complaint registered about this form of insect control was the crunching sounds at night as the lizards ate the bugs.

You might want to visit the house gecko thread for more general discussion of this topic. Someone over there reported that their neighborhood PetSmart had the local geckos for sale. You would need something larger than that, but maybe the pet store is a starting place.


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PostPosted: Sun Sep 07, 2003 11:05 pm 
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So it's either rats or lizards! LOL

My sister found a lizard in her bed once and I thought she'd have a heart attack over that. For months after that every time she touched something she didn't know what it was, it had to be a lizard. The crowning event was when she was at a theater watching a movie and her hand slipped down between the seat and felt something. Well, LIZARD was her immediate reaction and, in her kneejerk reaction, she threw a full Coke on the lap of the poor guy behind her!!

But I like the lizard idea for crickets. How do you keep the lizard in the house? Leash?

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PostPosted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 9:43 am 
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Invite it to lounge around?

I don't have them in the house intentionally because unlike other benign cats mentioned in these lizard-related threads, my trim housecats like nothing more than to stalk and capture anything that moves. I called Howard one week asking how to keep the tarantulas away from the house--after his first response that they're beneficial, don't kill them--I explained that I knew that. I wanted to keep them outside so my cats wouldn't kill them (the calico did nail a tarantula last summer). So geckos, while they're welcome to visit briefly, are not encouraged to stay indoors. And with all of the tarantulas, geckos, native lizards, snakes, birds, and toads, few bugs manage to run that gauntlet to reach the house!

I must say that it isn't like geckos eat bugs and that's all there is to it. The porch geckos regularly duck into my mail box (one with a top that opens upward on the wall next to the front door). They spend the day in there, and greet the mailman by bursting from the box and running up the wall. And every so often I go lift it off the wall and dump out the dry gecko poop. So if they're in your cupboards and around your cabinets and furniture, you'll have to clean carefully (don't vacuum up the darlings!) and I personally would at least wash the top plate when pulling out a stack to set the table for dinner! :D


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PostPosted: Mon Sep 08, 2003 12:36 pm 
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Have you tried dusting boric acid powder in the places where the smelly critters may be coming in? I am sorry that your nice old house is being invaded, but I had to laugh at the string of "cricket predators" that all of us are suggesting...I saw crickets for sale at PetSmart this weekend...perhaps you could go into the cricket business? just put a plastic bag over wherever they are coming in from, tie off the top, and sell 'em for 12 cents apiece - or you could get an iguana.


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