How to Get Rid of Crickets in the House: Traps, Dry Air and Sealed Gaps

To get rid of crickets in your house, put sticky traps in corners and behind appliances, dry out the basement or crawl space, switch outdoor lights to yellow bulbs and seal the cracks around doors, windows, the foundation and dryer vents. Vacuum the ones you see. Skip bug bombs: Missouri Extension calls spraying the air mostly ineffective.

Cost: about $21–$26 in supplies. Time: about 1 afternoon + a few weeks of traps. Difficulty: easy. Call a pro if crickets keep coming in by the hundreds after you have sealed the gaps and dried the basement, or you want a cricket bait applied in cracks and crevices and aren’t comfortable doing it yourself.

Which cricket you have changes the fix. House and field crickets chirp and are drawn to lights; camel crickets are silent, humpbacked and live in damp basements. This guide covers telling them apart, the five steps, what works and what doesn’t, and how to find a chirping cricket at night. We haven’t tested these methods ourselves; it rests on University of Missouri, NC State, Clemson, University of Maryland and University of Arizona Extension guidance.

Which Crickets Are in Your House?

A house cricket. Photo: Aiwok (CC BY-SA 3.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

A camel cricket: humped back, no wings, very long legs. Photo: Judy Gallagher (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

If you hear chirping indoors, it’s a house or field cricket, not a camel cricket (NC State). If you’re seeing silent, jumping crickets in a damp basement, it’s camel crickets, and moisture is the main fix.

Why Are Crickets in My House?

Field and house crickets come in most often in fall, driven by cooler night temperatures, and camel crickets come in looking for a place to spend the winter (Missouri). Crickets also favor cool, damp, dark places, so a wet basement or crawl space holds them (Missouri, Clemson). Outdoor lights near doors draw house and field crickets to the house in the first place.

What Works and What Doesn’t Against Crickets

Step 1: Set Sticky Traps

Place sticky boards, the kind sold for cockroaches and mice, in corners and behind appliances (NC State). Missouri Extension says they’ve been used successfully, especially against camel crickets. Check them every few days; a full board in one corner tells you where they’re getting in.

Illustration: a sticky board behind the dryer, the kind of corner crickets favor.

Step 2: Dry Out the Basement or Crawl Space

The University of Maryland says solving high moisture problems in a basement will greatly reduce or eliminate camel crickets: fix leaks, dehumidify and use sticky traps. Rutgers also suggests dehumidifying basements where practical. Dehumidifiers for bugs covers what size to buy.

Step 3: Cut the Light That Draws Them

House and field crickets are strongly attracted to lights. Missouri Extension suggests limiting outdoor lighting or using yellow bulbs, which are less attractive to insects than white, neon or mercury vapor lights; Clemson suggests yellow or sodium vapor lights around doors and windows. Camel crickets aren’t drawn to light, so skip this step if that’s all you have.

Step 4: Seal the Way In

Caulk or seal gaps around window frames, doors, the foundation, dryer vents and crawl space access doors (NC State), and keep window screens in good repair (Clemson). Fit a door sweep or weather stripping so the bottom of each exterior door meets the threshold.

Illustration: fitting a door sweep so the door meets the threshold.

Step 5: Clean Up Around the House

Keep ground cover and mulch at least 12 inches from the foundation (NC State), and move firewood, stones and debris away from the walls, since camel crickets shelter under them outdoors.

If crickets still come in large numbers after all five steps, Missouri Extension says cricket baits work particularly well indoors; use one labeled for crickets, only in cracks and crevices where they hide, and treat it as a temporary fix.

How to Find a Chirping Cricket at Night

Only adult males chirp, by rubbing their wings together (Missouri). The sound can be hard to place, so find it step by step:

1. Turn off the TV and fans and stand still in the room where it’s loudest.
2. Move slowly toward the sound. It stops when you get close; wait, and it starts again.
3. Check low and dark spots: behind appliances, under furniture, in closets and along baseboards.
4. Use a flashlight, then vacuum it up or catch it under a cup.

What It Costs

Glue boards and caulk: October 1, 2026 list prices from our roach guide. Door sweep: Home Depot list price, October 2026, from our lady beetle guide. Dehumidifier: Target, October 1, 2026, from our dehumidifier guide. Before tax.

When to Call a Pro

If crickets keep coming in by the hundreds after you’ve sealed the gaps and dried the basement, or you want a cricket bait applied in cracks and crevices and aren’t comfortable doing it yourself. Crickets are one of several fall invaders handled the same way: seal before they arrive.

The Bottom Line

Sticky traps in corners, a dry basement, yellow outdoor bulbs and sealed gaps handle most cricket problems. Check which cricket you have first: lights matter for house and field crickets, moisture matters for camel crickets.