Cricket
Scientific Name: Gryllidae
Crickets are common garden insects that can sometimes be harmful to your garden!
How to Identify:
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Three sets of legs with their back set being the largest.
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In most cases crickets are brown or darkly coloured.
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Have slightly flattened bodies and long antennae.
Costs:
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Crickets feed on tender shoots, young stems, and leaves but won’t do much damage beyond cutting seedlings.
How to control cricket damage in your garden:
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Remove debris such as piles of leave or firewood which eliminates dark spots they require.
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Use protective cones on younger plants to prevent the crickets from eating the young stems.
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Simply move the cricket to a forest or marsh habitat.
How this relate to conservation:
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For the most part crickets are relatively passive in garden areas. One effect crickets have however is their role in the soil system. Because they chew through a lot of organic material they help to maintain a constant soil quality.
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In massive numbers crickets can have a large scale effect on plant growth including the agriculture industry, but these cases are often rare. However, recent increases in global temperatues due to emissions have made habitat more suitable for crickets which could lead to large scale reduction in vegetation of North America.
