Baby Crickets

Cricket Life Cycle

There are about 100 species of crickets found in the United States and each species has three development stages in their life cycle. The three stages are eggs, nymphs and adults.

Cricket Nymph

Cricket nymphs look much like cricket adults, except nymphs are smaller than adults, do not have well developed wings and are not sexually mature and thus unable to reproduce. To reduce the complexity of describing the appearance of all crickets, we will present the general appearance of the four main groups of crickets most likely to be encountered by urban and suburban homeowners – camel crickets, field crickets, house crickets and Jerusalem crickets.

Types of Baby Crickets

• Camel Crickets: These crickets are very distinctive since they have an arched appearance that makes them resemble the hump of a camel. Their head is positioned between the front legs and is bent towards the ground. Camel crickets have very long hind legs and they are excellent jumpers. Both nymphs and adults are wingless.

  Camel crickets are commonly found inside homes, especially in basements, garages, storage areas, crawl spaces and sometimes in living areas.

• Field Crickets: These crickets vary in color, but most are either black or brownish. They have very long antennae that extend beyond the tip of their abdomen. Nymphs are smaller than the adults, do not have wings and do not have a long egg laying ovipositor, as do the adult females.

• House Crickets: House crickets are yellowish brown colored and have antennae that are longer than the body. Adults and nymphs are similar in appearance, but nymphs are wingless and female nymphs do not have ovipositors.

• Jerusalem Crickets: Nymphal Jerusalem crickets resemble adults except they are smaller. Jerusalem crickets are brown with black rings on the abdomen, wingless, possess large legs and have very large heads. Nymphs may molt up to 11 times before reaching the mature, adult stage.