Getting rid of CRICKETS! (Without harming Chinchillas)

[BenD188]

It's that time of year again, the Crickets are here! My room is in the basement, where my chinchillas are.

I also normally get some spiders, but I don't worry too much about them. Yea I don't like the idea of them crawling around in my room or on me, but they are known to eat other bugs.

Does anyone know of good ways to get rid of crickets? They can be very annoying at night. I am afraid to spray any bug spray because of the chinchillas. I've heard of buying the glue traps, or using a jar with molasses in it.

I'm probably just going to buy glue traps, but would a pet-friendly pesticide be alright? Or should I not risk it with the chinchillas? (I wouldn't spray it right by their cage) I've also read about some granular powders to sprinkle around corners of the basement.

Any help is appreciated... I'm sure someone out there has to of had this problem before?

-Ben

 

[Spoof]

The chinchillas will eat the crickets if they can catch them. Actually, they eat any bugs they can catch. I never see anything in my barn except the occasional horse fly, which I kill. I know for a fact far more get in than that...

You could use a permethrin based spray. Just take them upstairs while you spray, wait 30 minutes for it all to settle and put them back in.

 

[becky12883]

It might help to spray around the outside of the house too. We had ants and stink bugs coming in the house and were afraid of spraying inside. We got a spray for outside and it has pretty much stopped the ants and cut the stink bugs way down. We sprayed around the entire perimeter of the house and around all the windows and doors.

 

[halfstache]

What I would recommend is to hire a professional exterminator to come in and do a proper service for your home on a regular basis every two months. I have seen a lot of home owners trying to do their own pest control applications completely wrong. The powder that you were speaking of is sold "over the counter" as boric acid. In all the years I've done pest control for a living I have never once found a place where the customer had used boric acid on their own correctly. It is a very common mistake to use it incorrectly. Pesticides can be used safely around chinchillas, but it should be done by someone who is very familiar with the products being used. If money is a factor and you can not afford to sign a contract for regular pest control service then I would suggest at the very least to fully read the label cover to cover of whatever pesticide you are thinking about using. If it were me, in my home, I would use Bifenthrin I/T 7.9 and I would mix 1 oz of concentrate to 1 gallon of water, remove the animals from the rooms to be treated, then spray the baseboards or bottom perimeter of the room and especially any cracks or crevices. keep the animals and other people out of the room for a period of 2 hours following treatment. After 2 hours everything should be dry and at that point it is fine to return the animals to the room.

Again though, please READ THE WHOLE LABEL COVER TO COVER. It may be boring and seem like it doesn't all pertain to your situation, but it needs to be read before use anyhow.