I've got a singing cricket in the living room. So fun! Can't relax in front of the TV of an evening... the singing is too loud! Chirp Chirp Chirp endlessly.... How do I get him out of hiding and out the door?
A teaspoon or so of molasses in a shallow bowl mixed with a little water. Empty it when the cricket comes to eat.
Great idea! Molasses is a difficult item to find in the Mexican shops. Odd, eh? Here they have many other forms of sugar. I could try that. Interestingly enough the cricket of interest resides inside the airconditioner like the one in the picture here: It was opened and the filter checked, but the cricket may be behind the unit or in the electronics area and is well hidden. He only chirps at night Too bad I can't take the unit off the wall and look, but it's screwed on pretty well and has tubes and wires to deal with. Definitely NOT going to use bug spray!
You can pop the cover off. Mine is pretty similar, there's two tabs to press down from the top and it folds down from the top. Just be careful of the flapper. While you are in there, make sure there's no gunk in the condensate pan and that the drain is clear - you don't want it to run over and leak down the wall. I put in an aftermarket sensor that turns the unit off if the pan gets full. Pack the hole in the back where the refrigerant lines go through the wall so you don't have repeat visitors...
Using a good spray on coil cleaner will keep gunk from building up on the coils and keep the drain line from clogging up with mold, too. It just drips off with the condensation so you don't need to rinse it. These min-split units are the best....cheap, quiet and crazy efficient. They are prone to leaks, though. If it's yours, be sure the tubing connections at the outside unit and behind the inside are tight - if there's any oil around them, that's a leak.
Thanks! It's a brand new house, moved in two months ago. Clean inside still as we haven't used it yet...although the summer heat is arriving any day. I believe all is tightly sealed... the pesky critter came in from around or under the front door which had a large gap. Now fixed with weather stripping. Too many other critters found it an easy way to get in.
Internet gives a few different answers as to the lifespan of crickets: 90 days is about the average--however if it's a female and lays eggs--you may be in for a looooooong time listening to cricket chirps!!!
You could spray vinegar around the unit or on the filter if there is one to force it out. I have had crickets eat the peanut butter off of mouse trap as well, so that might draw it out.
Ha! This house has plenty of those. We have a nice family of Jumping Spiders in every window, fun to play with and harmless. But they do eat a lot of bugs apparently. Fortunately we don't see any bad spiders around here in this concrete box. Up north in California we had Brown Recluses, I had a bite or two over the years, one serious enough to go to the doctor. They are a problem indeed. Also had Black Widows a time or two up there, haven't seen them down south here in the desert... yet. I am sure they are around somewhere!
