It’s So Quiet, Where are All the Crickets?

Like a bolt out of the blue, it struck me last night that it was pretty quiet outside. The neighbor’s dog had stopped barking and the streets were empty.

That’s usually when one hears crickets. Usually, but not last night. And then it struck me that I hadn’t heard crickets in a long time, years perhaps.

I used to hear them a lot, and in fact, they used to drive me nuts. I’d even find them in the house and have to catch them and put them outside. After all, isn’t it bad luck to kill a cricket in the house? Now, why is that? I mean, crickets are aggressive little buggers.

They remind me of tubular cockroaches (if there’s such a thing). And they do eat each other. I remember smashing one once while I was positioned on my throne (if you know what I mean); couldn’t be expected to get up at the time, y’know. When along comes another one that starts nibbling on the smashed one.

Eww. That wasn’t nice to see.

But, I digress.

Where are all the crickets anyway? It was one of those things that you don’t really think about, and don’t realize is missing.

You know, like a pain in your hand that suddenly, and without your noticing it until a few days later, just goes away all by itself. Out of sight, out of mind. Like that.

Then, I realized why I’d thought about crickets around my house at that particular time. I was watching the movie Arachnophobia and the main character, Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels), had remarked that he hadn’t heard crickets for months.

The reason? There’s this big mutant spider from Venezuela that’s mated with a local spider and produced ravenous, mega-toxic offspring that’re wiping out the vermin (and cricket) population around his home.

And that begs the question: Do we have toxic starving spiders around MY house?