House Cricket

Media
Photo of an adult female house cricket walking on bark
Scientific Name
Acheta domesticus
Family
Gryllidae (true crickets) in the order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids)
Description

The house cricket is light brown or tannish overall; the tan head has three dark crossbands. Females have a harmless needlelike ovipositor at the tip of the abdomen. Like other types of field crickets, house crickets have large heads, hind legs adapted for jumping, and stout, unmovable spines on the hind legs.

Learn more about house crickets and other field crickets in their group entry.

Other Common Names
Field Cricket
Size
Length: ½–¾ inch.

Like other types of field crickets, house crickets are common in many habitats, especially grassy areas such as lawns, fields, pastures, prairies, roadsides, but also in woods. House crickets are also quite common in houses.

House crickets are probably native to Eurasia but are found nearly worldwide, having traveled the globe with people. They are commonly sold for fish bait and as a live pet food. They eat a wide variety of foods and can be kept as pets.

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About Land Invertebrates in Missouri
Invertebrates are animals without backbones, including earthworms, slugs, snails, and arthropods. Arthropods—invertebrates with “jointed legs” — are a group of invertebrates that includes crayfish, shrimp, millipedes, centipedes, mites, spiders, and insects. There may be as many as 10 million species of insects alive on earth today, and they probably constitute more than 90 percent all animal species.