Thursday, May 14, 2020

A Fearsome Fight with a Glue Trap



We live in a one-story house without a basement.  Crickets feel free to come and go as they please and I don't like it. In December, we put a pricey air cleaner in our bedroom.  The other day I thought it had begun to squeak.  How annoying! "Doesn't anything work right anymore?" I muttered. I was afraid I'd have to box the bulky thing up and ship it back to the manufacturer while it was still under warranty.  Fortunately, I turned it off and the squeaking, or chirping, continued.  Yay! It was "only" a cricket. How annoying!! And in our bedroom too. 

The glue trap under the dresser was already full of dead crickets. So I opened a box of four new glue traps. Two of the traps are pictured above, joined by a perforated line.  I should have used scissors at this point, but none were handy. I impatiently tried to tear the traps apart, only to get my fingers firmly stuck, first in one trap and then in the other. Several minutes ensued in which I yanked and got repeatedly stuck while yelling bad words. Finally, I managed to extricate myself from the traps. Generous applications of "GooGone" got the stuff off my fingers.  I slid a fresh trap under the dresser. It didn't take long for the poor cricket to find it.

I felt sorry for the cricket. Usually if we see a spider or other bug in the house, we trap it in a glass with a piece of cardboard and put it outside. Have you ever tried this with a cricket?


20 comments:

  1. Getting fingers stuck in the glue traps sounds like something I would do. I don't think I've ever had a cricket in the house but I do get ants every spring.

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    1. Never had a cricket in the house when I lived in northwestern PA. It must be a Maryland thing.

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  2. Your antics reminded me of Wile E. Coyote and his contraptions from Acme Co., LOL!

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    1. As our younger daughter said to our older daughter, "Mom is at war with the universe."

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  3. I've had a cricket from time to time but they don't bother me the way ants do. I've been bitten by ants a time or two in my life and it isn't fun at all.

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    1. Not fond of ants either. So busy and so self-righteous and SO annoying.

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  4. In the country when I was young I can remember an occasional cricket come inside the house but they were a curiosity rather than a pest. You with your hands becoming constantly stuck is the of old tv comedy.

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    1. I know that people say, "We're not laughing at you, we're laughing with you," but I wasn't laughing.

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  5. Oh man. I had a cricket in my room last year, and it was a misery. If I could have found it... I don't mind them in the abstract, but I do not like them in my immediate vicinity.

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  6. crickets make to CRAZY and just one in the house has cost me a nights sleep. and the problem is, i can never find it to kill it. i am allergic to bug spray in my old age. when i lived at home in GA we kept spray and would just spray it.. so far have not had any in the house here.. but sometimes i hear them outside. even the hum of a mosquito wakes me up

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    1. Mosquitos! Why must they hum when they flit past your ear?

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  7. you must live in cricket city, never seen more than one at a time

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    1. I think you're right. Maybe I should approach the City Council about changing the name. Truth in advertising, you know. The city's name is "Laurel," but I'm not sure I've seen many. Or any. Will have to ask Himself, who also loves and hugs shrubbery.

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  8. tell your hubby we in this house are Tree Lovers and Huggers..

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  9. Never heard Cricket trap. I find the noise they make soothing

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    1. I guess it depends where you are when you're listening to them. :-)

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  10. Got to this site via Debra She Who Seeks' post and glad I found you because, though I only get the occasional cricket coming in from the patio, in the evening when they follow the light and find themselves quickly dispatched into the afterlife, it's one or two too many for me. Going to try putting these traps outside ... on the patio.

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  11. Cynthia:

    I use crickets in a few different labs that I teach in animal behavior. We get them in a batch of 500. :)

    I liked hearing of your situation, and am glad the goo gone helped!

    PipeTobacco

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