Have you ever taken a stroll around the yard and felt the dry ground squish underneath of your feet? Did you happen to notice small burrow holes in the bare earth surrounded by trails of yellow, dead grass? If so, your property could very well be infested with pesky mole crickets. They’ve been plaguing Florida’s residential properties for years. Happily, there are environmentally friendly management techniques that our Valrico pest control experts can use to help send them packing.
Utilizing the mole crickets’ life long, mortal enemies to help convince them to abandon a residential space is one of the easiest methods to date. The insects that seem to send them running the fastest are Larra wasps. They reproduce very quickly and their larva attacks the crickets with deadly precision. Consequently, the wasps are generally able to decimate an area’s cricket population in a year or less.
Furthermore, the wasps do not maintain large nests and typically pay no mind to humans or pets. They simply gather partridge pea or buttonweed nectar and rely on it as well as the crickets for their daily sustenance. Therefore, their introduction into a residential space shouldn’t pose any additional problems for families and their visiting loved ones.
Once the wasps are introduced into the area and start feeding, the mole crickets should disappear on their own. However, if they don’t, there are other ways to eradicate them. They include using other environmentally friendly insects, like mole cricket nematodes, Brazilian red-eye flies and blue ants. Unfortunately, not all of them are friendly towards humans (e.g. blue ants). So many people like to only use them as a last resort. Of course there is the option of using assorted chemicals to get rid of the mole crickets too.
To learn more about mole crickets and environmentally friendly ways to control them, please contact us and ask to speak with our Valrico pest control experts.
