There are several reasons to trap crickets. They’re great to use as fishing bait or food for reptiles and chickens.
If they’re a nuisance around your home, traps are an efficient way to get rid of them.
How do you make a cricket trap? DIY live cricket traps can be made by putting carb-rich, sugary foods into a jar or bottle topped with a paper towel and placing it in strategic locations. Lethal DIY traps can be made in a similar fashion using borax and sugar or molasses and water.
In the following, we’ll show you how to make several different kinds of traps.
Whether you wish to catch them live for various purposes or if you’d prefer to eliminate them, you’ll find a method that will work here.
Making a Homemade Cricket Trap
When you make a homemade trap for crickets, you can often use whatever you have at home.
We have several methods listed for you, and you can mix and match trap instructions to make it work for you.
DIY traps are great because there’s not one single correct way to make them, but repellents are quite effective too.
Learn how to keep crickets away and see which repellents are best to use in this article.
Traps For Catching Live Crickets
Cricket trapping is a common practice for pet owners and chicken raisers to have live feed and for people who like to fish so they can have live bait.
Live crickets are preferred so they can stay fresh.
Live traps are also a great method to ethically trap and release crickets that found their way into your home if you’re not comfortable with killing them.
Bread and Sugar
Crickets are attracted to carb-filled foods (find out exactly what they like to eat here), so a bread-and-sugar mix is sure to catch many of them. For this method, you will need:
- Plain bread crumbs.
- Granulated sugar.
- Newspaper or paper towel.
- Jar.
Mix together equal parts of plain bread crumbs and sugar. We specify plain bread because some scents deter crickets.
Any kind of white or wheat bread will do.
Pour the mixture in a pile near where you usually find crickets. Lay a piece of newspaper or a paper towel over the pile and leave it overnight.
Early the following morning, take a jar with you, lift the cover, and catch as many crickets as you can.
It’s probably best to do this right as the sun is coming up since most crickets are nocturnal and will hide away during the day.
If you’re keeping the crickets as live bait, the jar will need to have some small holes so they can breathe.
An alternative method is to dig a shallow hole in the ground, place a container in the hole, and place the bread and sugar mix in the container and cover it as directed above.
The next morning you can take the container lid with you instead of a jar and quickly trap them without disturbing them.
Plastic Bottles
Cricket traps are a great way to give plastic bottles that come into your home a second life.
It works best with 2-liter bottles rather than smaller drinking water bottles, but either will work. For this trap, you’ll need:
- Scissors or a knife.
- Tape.
- Sugar or other bait.
Take an empty bottle and cut the top part off. Cut where the cylinder is the widest instead of where it’s smaller by the opening.
Invert the top and place it inside the bottle so that the spout forms a funnel into the bottle. Tape it into place.
Pour sugar or some other type of bait into the bottle. Remember that crickets like carbs and sugar, so there’s a long list of options you can choose from.
Leave the bottle overnight in the area you find crickets. The next day it should be filled with crickets.
To remove them, take off the tape, and open the trap to release them where you want them.
Crickets can easily make their way inside but find it difficult to get out, which is why this method is so effective.
Although it probably won’t happen, it is possible for one or two to escape. However, it’s not very likely since the exit is raised above the floor of the trap and it’s super small.
Be sure to read our complete guide “How To Get Rid of Crickets” for more elimination tips and strategies.
Traps to Get Rid of Crickets
Not all are friends with crickets or want to utilize them, and that’s okay.
There are some DIY traps you can make that will kill them rather than act as a holding chamber.
You can combine these methods with the methods mentioned above to make something that will work for you.
Borax
Borax is nature’s poison. It’s a skin irritant if you touch it and can be fatal if large amounts are consumed.
However, it’s completely natural and doesn’t pose the same kinds of environmental harm as chemical pesticides do.
To utilize borax in a trap, you will need:
- Borax (easily found on Amazon).
- Gloves.
- Sugar.
- Plate or container.
- Paper towel.
Be sure to wear gloves when using borax.
Mix sugar and borax together on a paper plate or a shallow container. You don’t need a half-and-half ratio, so try three parts sugar and one part borax.
Place the dish of your choice where you find the most crickets, and allow it to sit overnight. The next day you’ll see dead crickets around the area.
Something to note about borax is that it might not kill instantly.
How quickly it works will depend on how much borax the cricket came into contact with and how much it consumed.
So, you might find crickets dead in the trap or nearby if they had time to leave before they died.
If you want to use borax indoors, consider making the 2-liter bottle trap mentioned above. This will prevent crickets from dying around your home.
Molasses
Sticky, sweet molasses is irresistible to crickets too. You can use this to your advantage by making a trap. You’ll need:
- Molasses.
- Water.
- Shallow container.
Fill the container up so that it’s filled 1-2 inches deep. Stir in a tablespoon or two of molasses and leave the trap out for the crickets to find.
Crickets will be attracted to the molasses and hop into the container hoping to get some, but they’ll get stuck and the water will cause them to drown.
You can use molasses without water in any of the traps previously mentioned, but the molasses itself won’t kill them.
Do you know the difference between spider crickets, camel crickets, and cave crickets? Is there really a difference? Find the answer here.
Where to Put the Trap
Crickets are usually nocturnal and like to stay in protected areas. So, once you’ve made a trap, you should put it in places they’ll feel comfortable staying in.
This could be underneath refrigerators, in dark corners of basements and attics, or outside under the bushes. If you know where they burrow, putting it nearby is ideal.
Pre-made Traps
If DIY isn’t your thing, there are a couple of traps that should suit you. They can be used indoors and outdoors, so they’re quite convenient.
Catchmaster Cricket XL
This extra large Catchmaster sticky trap will catch any crickets that land on it. Because of its size, you’ll be able to use it for a long time before it fills up.
Place it wherever you find crickets and they’ll start landing on it soon.
If you use this outside, put it in a semi-protected area as small animals can also get stuck on it. Rain and dirt will render the trap useless.
Place underneath a porch covering or low-laying furniture to keep it sheltered.
My Critter Catcher
My Critter Catcher is a more ethical approach to cricket control. If you’re fine with them being outside but not in the house, this is a good item for you to get.
When you spot a cricket, use the catcher to safely pick it up and transfer it outside.
It keeps the cricket a safe distance away from you (because they can bite) and won’t let it fall out while you transport it outdoors or directly into your cricket-eating pet’s habitat.
This isn’t so great for infestations since it can only pick up one or two at a time.
Related Question:
Do Glue Traps Work For Crickets?
Glue traps work well for crickets. You can put bait like molasses or bread near the sticky trap to draw them to it if the glue trap doesn’t have a built-in bait.
They fit well underneath refrigerators, grills, furniture, or wherever else you may spot crickets hiding.
The downside is that anything can stick to it, including critters you don’t intend to harm.
Small birds, squirrels, bees, and pretty much anything else can get stuck. So, make sure you keep them in a safe place and keep small pets away from them.
Final Thoughts
DIY traps are inexpensive but effective ways to control a cricket problem.
Many of the items are probably already in your home, so they’re a budget-friendly way of lowering the pest population.
Traps are also a great way to collect live feed for chickens and pet reptiles.
Find more information and help for dealing with crickets, including repellent options and elimination guides, in our lineup of cricket articles. See them all here.
