Controlling crickets - Fen crickets eating tomato crop

by andreea
(Bucuresti, Romania)

I have a small vegetable garden and I've recently planted a few tomato crops but the fen cricket it's eating them. I don't know what solution to aply because I live in Romania and here no one has heard of "beneficial creatures" or other stuff like that(or at least in the part I live in. I'm a stubborn person and I refuse to think that chemicals are the only solution.

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Jun 09, 2010

Crickets eating tomato crop
by: Megan

I've not heard of Fen crickets, but I think they could be Mole crickets. Anyway many crickets do damage and one of the best ways to control them is to keep damp grassy areas where they hide away from your tomatoes if you can.

Crickets tend to come out at night to feed, so a torch and fly swat works wonders if you feel like some satisfactory exercise!

Controlling the nymphs is a good solution. In spring the female crickets lay their eggs in small tunnels in the soil, and these hatch out in early/mid summer when they start to feed.
Look for these little tunnels or holes in the soil surface and smother them with a layer of dry material such as cardboard, papers, old plastic if you have it, (even plastic bags) carpet or sacking.
Also squirt some organic insecticide down, especially one with oil so it suffocates the nymphs.

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