During the cooler months of the desert, Phoenix property owners are in a unique predicament. With the quest to find refuge from turning temperatures, cricket populations boom, and the cycle of pest invasion in Valley homes begins. Because these chirping invaders not only ruin your sleep, they literally welcome spiders to your doorstep. The same warm, dry climate that draws residents to Phoenix also sets up the cyclical pest life that is ideal for repeating itself each year.
As crickets make themselves at home in the quiet corners of our houses, garages, and storage areas, they unintentionally place dinner invitations in the mailbox of local spider species. This compounding pest issue can make it tougher for many property owners to break the cycle without professional support from Green Mango Pest Control.
How Crickets Accidentally Invite Spiders Indoors
Crickets Create a Food Highway for Hunting Spiders
Crickets are the primary food source for desert spiders in Phoenix. As crickets wander in the house, spiders follow their desirable prey. The pheromones and movement patterns of house crickets serve as GPS signals for hungry arachnids.
Cricket Waste Attracts Secondary Food Sources
Cricket droppings, along with shed skin, create organic matter that can attract other smaller insects, such as fruit flies and gnats. Add a secondary food chain, and you have even more incentive for spiders to make your house their permanent residence.
Moisture from Cricket Activity Draws Desert Spiders
Crickets require humidity, and they tend to hang near water resources like leaky pipes or air conditioning units. The crickets create small moisture pockets that attract the desert spiders of Phoenix, critters usually adapted to arid conditions.
Cricket Hiding Spots Become Spider Nesting Areas
Crickets like to dwell in dark areas that are not frequently disturbed, such as basements, closets, and storage rooms. These regions furnish perfect nesting spots for typical Phoenix spiders, such as black widows and wolf spiders.
Sound Vibrations Alert Spiders to Cricket Presence
The spiders process the sound vibrations that come from chirping via their sensitive leg hairs. So this built-in predation mechanism means that anything but quiet, your cricket population is basically yelling out here, a spider, dinner is served throughout your home.
Signs That Cricket Activity Is Fueling Spider Infestations
- More spider webs are present near cricket hiding locations – check for webs where crickets usually congregate in garages, sheds, storage areas, and along baseboards
- Spider egg sac where crickets are prevalent – Female spiders will lay an egg sac next to a food source
- Increased spider activity during cricket season – In Phoenix, crickets are most active from September through November, followed by upticks in spider activity
- Cricket carcasses caught in spider webs – Indicates spiders are hunting crickets in your home
- Black poop near where crickets are gathering – These are spider droppings and indicate a spider has been eating a cricket and coming back for more in regularly frequented spots
- Spider species that do not belong in the house – Desert species that usually should be outside, but follow the crickets indoors
Local Pest Experts Offering Dual Pest Solutions
Many Phoenix residents with combined cricket and spider issues find that treating one pest without treating for the other keeps the cycle occurring. New data from Maricopa County suggests that more than 78 % of residential pest control calls list multiple species, and crickets and spiders are among the most common combinations.
Understanding the link between these desert pests, Green Mango Pest Control provides treatment options that cover the areas where crickets enter and where spiders breed. They target crickets’ attractions while interrupting the food chain process, treating areas that spiders are also attracted to. Their method is based on the Phoenix desert climate and seasonal pest cycles.
Local pest management data indicate that homes treated with dual-species treatments experience 85% fewer repeat infestations compared with single-pest treatments. When black widows come into play, as is often the case in Phoenix, where they can threaten human health, then professional intervention becomes necessary.