Insects · Orthoptera · Gryllidae

House Cricket

Acheta domesticus

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The house cricket is an orthopteran insect probably originating in south-western Asia, but which has spread throughout the world. They are bred commercially as food for pets such as amphibians, arthropods, birds and reptiles, but they can also be kept as pets in their own right, as has been the case in China and Japan.

Size

16 cm – 21 cm

Diet

Omnivore

Combines animal and plant food depending on availability.

Activity

Nocturnal

Active mainly at night.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

GrasslandOmnivore Nocturnal Colonial Insect Grassland

6countries1same family

Fun facts

Only the male sings, rubbing a scraper on one wing against a file on the other; the rate of the song speeds up with temperature so regularly that it can be used to estimate it.
Its ears are not on its head but on its front legs, in the form of two tympanic membranes just below the knee.
It is one of the three insect species authorised by the European Union as human food, and is farmed industrially for flours and protein bars.
It is one of the edible insects authorised in the European Union: the Commission approved its sale frozen, dried and as a powder in 2022, and partially defatted in January 2023.
Its protein has an in vitro digestibility of 79 to 93 %, comparable to that of conventional animal sources.
Intensive rearing has an Achilles heel: cricket densovirus (AdDNV), which has wiped out entire farms in North America and Europe.
It can trigger cross-reactions in people allergic to crustaceans and dust mites, because of tropomyosin.
It is traditionally eaten in South-East Asia, above all in Thailand.