Camel cricket
Ceuthophilus species
- Identification
- Humpbacked, wingless crickets with long legs and antennae; tan and mottled. Jump when startled.
- Lifecycle & behavior
- Live in cool, damp, dark spaces — basements, crawlspaces, and window wells — feeding on organic matter.
- When it's active in Central NY
- Common in CNY basements and crawlspaces year-round, most noticed when they leap unexpectedly.
- Risk & damage
- Harmless — no biting or disease — but can damage stored fabrics and paper in numbers, and unsettle homeowners.
- Why DIY falls short
- They thrive in damp voids that home treatment doesn't reach or dry out.
- How we treat it
- Moisture reduction, crawlspace and basement treatment, and sealing to reduce entry.
Camel cricket or spider?
Camel crickets are often called spider crickets or sprickets because of the resemblance — a humpbacked body, very long legs and antennae, and no wings. They are tan to brown, often mottled. Unlike true crickets they do not chirp, having no wings to produce sound with.
The behavior that unnerves people is that they jump toward disturbance rather than away, apparently as a defense. It is startling and entirely harmless.
Camel crickets in Central New York
They are a fixture of damp basements, crawlspaces, and under-porch spaces throughout the region, and the older housing stock with stone foundations and dirt crawlspaces gives them ideal conditions. They feed on organic debris and fungi and can chew fabric or stored paper when populations are large.
As with most of the occasional-invader group, they are a moisture and access story. Drying the space, sealing at ground level, and reducing debris and cardboard storage in basements does the real work.
Dealing with camel cricket?
Our general pest preventative service handles it — guaranteed, family-owned, and local.
Camel cricket — common questions
Why do camel crickets jump at me?
It appears to be a defensive response — they jump toward a disturbance rather than away from it, which is startling but entirely harmless. They cannot bite meaningfully and do not chirp. Their presence points to a damp basement or crawlspace.