House cricket

Appearance

The house cricket is typically gray or brownish in color, growing to 16–21 millimetres in length. Males and females look similar, but females will have a needle from the rear, around 12 millimetres long. The ovipositor is brown-black, and is surrounded by two appendages. On males, the cerci are also more prominent and house crickets are also omnivores.

Behavior

House crickets take two to three months to complete their life cycle at 26 to 32 °C. They have no special overwintering stage, but can survive cold weather in and around buildings, and in dumps where heat from fermentation may sustain them. Eggs are deposited in whatever damp substrate is available. Juveniles resemble the adults except for being smaller and wingless.

Food

The house cricket is an omnivore that eats a range of plant and animal matter. Crickets in the wild consume flowers, leaves, fruits, grasses and other insects. Crickets in captivity will accept fruits, vegetables, grains, various pet foods and commercial cricket food.The house cricket is an edible insect. It is farmed in South-East Asia and parts of Europe and North America for human consumption. In Asia, it is said to become more popular than many native cricket species due to what consumers claimed was their superior taste and texture. Dry-roasting is common and is considered the most nutritious method of preparing them, though they are often sold deep-fried as well. Farmed house crickets are mostly freeze-dried and often processed into a powder known as cricket flour. In Europe, the house cricket is officially approved for use in food products in Switzerland and in the European Union member states. In the EU, the house cricket was approved as novel food in frozen, dried and powdered forms with the "Commission Implementing Regulation 2022/188 of 10 February 2022". Before that, the European Food Safety Authority had published a safety assessment on August 17, 2021, stating that frozen and dried formulations from whole house crickets are safe for consumption.