Downtown residents are scratching their heads over an
inexplicable cricket invasion.
Hollister – Downtown residents are scratching their heads over an inexplicable cricket invasion.
“We don’t know where they’re from or why they’re here,” said Kelly Owczarek, owner of Kelly’s Gift Place and Cornerstone Coffee.
Owczarek said she’s never seen an infestation this bad. And there were more crickets serenading her customers last week, when the weather was hotter, she said.
“They tend to stay in here with the carpets and the boxes, away from the coffee shop,” Owczarek said.
Although “the kids are loving it,” the crickets’ sweet sounds have put a damper on Owczarek’s business. She recalled one customer who opened the door to Cornerstone and beat a hasty retreat once she saw a cricket. Since then, Owczarek has put up signs featuring cartoon character Jiminy Cricket apologizing about the insects and promising that they “don’t bite.”
Owczarek certainly isn’t alone in her suffering. Jerry Muenzer, owner of Muenzer’s Cyclery and Sports Center, said the crickets have appeared “all over his store.” The crickets are annoying, but Muenzer said he hasn’t been tempted to call pest control.
“From my observation, every summer a different insect seems to have the run of the planet,” Muenzer said. “This seems to be the year of the cricket.”
So what spurred the invasion? No one seems sure. Frankie Lam, an insect specialist at the University of California Cooperative Extension in Salinas, said he hasn’t heard any complaints. But for farmers, crickets may not be a bad thing, Lam noted.
“In the field, they can be considered beneficial because they eat other insects,” he said.
Lam also said crickets are most active in the late summer because they’re busy mating and laying eggs.
Bill Coates, acting director of the UC Cooperative Extension in Hollister, said crickets tend to head indoors when night temperatures drop or when food is in short supply. But neither circumstance seems to apply in Hollister, he said.
“You know, things just go in cycles depending on the food supply and the predators,” Coates said.
The city has had problems with other animals, he said, including rats and meadow mice. And the cooperative extension’s office in the Veterans Memorial Building has not been spared.
“We’re killing (crickets) every day,” Coates said.
The best way to deal with crickets is to seal off the inside of your house or building, he said.
So don’t panic, Hollisterites, even if you see a cricket in your favorite restaurant. Ray Stevenson, an inspector with the county’s Environmental Health Department, said he hasn’t spotted any health issues. One or two crickets aren’t a cause for concern, he said.
“They don’t take over a restaurant, the way a roach does,” Stevenson said. “But we wouldn’t want to exclude them. If a place is completely covered in crickets, that’s still a problem.”
Anthony Ha covers local government for
