If you’re terrified of creepy bugs and spiders, you may want to skip this one. This bug looks like a disturbing cross between an insect and a spider, and there may be some living in your basement right now.
These insects are called “Camel Crickets” because of their distinctive hump on their backs.
Wikimedia Commons/USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
They are also frequently called “spider crickets” or “sprickets” because of a resemblance to spiders from a distance.
Flickr / Steve Fernie And let’s face it, you probably don’t want to get too close!
These creatures normally live in caves, but they tend to make their way into homes and basements as winter approaches.
Wikimedia Commons/Katja Schulz
They can find their way into a home through even the smallest of cracks.
Wikimedia Commons/Neda Dilmaghanian
The crickets can be destructive once inside, gnawing on wood, carpet, and fabric.
Wikimedia Commons/Thegreenj
Unlike the common cricket, they don’t attract mates by chirping; rather, they are perfectly silent. Instead, they advertise their location by emitting a strong smell, which attracts even more crickets.
Pixabay/msumuh
If you do find a swarm of these invaders in your house, they can be removed by an exterminator or captured in glue traps.
Flickr / NY State IPM Program at Cornell University However, the glue traps reveal another horrifying attribute of these bugs… when they smell their family members dying, they swarm to the traps with the intention of cannibalizing them. Scary, right?
Perhaps most horrifying of all, these bugs have a tendency to jump towards anything that frightens them, including people. Although they don’t jump with the intention of attacking humans, if one lands on you, it may start gnawing with its strong mandibles.
Wikimedia Commons/USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
Flickr / Steve Fernie
And let’s face it, you probably don’t want to get too close!
Wikimedia Commons/Katja Schulz
Wikimedia Commons/Neda Dilmaghanian
Wikimedia Commons/Thegreenj
Pixabay/msumuh
Flickr / NY State IPM Program at Cornell University
However, the glue traps reveal another horrifying attribute of these bugs… when they smell their family members dying, they swarm to the traps with the intention of cannibalizing them. Scary, right?
Here’s a video of a cricket jumping from YouTube user Josh Pappas.
Have you ever found these creatures in your basement at home?
Camel crickets aren’t the only creepy critters in our state. Here are 12 more bugs found in West Virginia that will send shivers down your spine.
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