Crickets are seasonal nightmare pests in Dallas-Fort Worth. Every year, late summer through early fall, North Texas sees massive cricket migrations — sometimes called "cricket plagues" — where black field crickets show up by the thousands around homes, businesses, gas stations, parking lots, and patios. Once they find an entry point, crickets invade garages, basements, laundry rooms, and storage areas, where their nighttime chirping keeps families awake and their droppings stain floors and walls.

The species that drives most DFW cricket complaints is the Texas field cricket, but house crickets and camel crickets show up too — especially in garages, sheds, and homes with damp crawl spaces. Crickets are attracted to bright outdoor lights, which makes commercial buildings, gas stations, and well-lit homes magnets during fall migrations. From there, they squeeze under garage doors, through weatherstripping, and into vent openings.

The CanMan's cricket program hits the outside perimeter where crickets gather, the entry points they use, and the indoor harborage in garages, laundry rooms, and storage areas. We also work with homeowners on outdoor lighting changes that drastically cut cricket pressure.

DFW gets some of the worst cricket pressure in the country. The annual fall migration — usually August through October — can blanket parking lots, gas stations, big-box stores, and homes in black crickets. Suburbs with new construction next to fields, greenbelts, and drainage corridors get hit hardest: Frisco, McKinney, Prosper, Celina, Anna, Princeton, and parts of Denton see massive seasonal swings. Older neighborhoods in East Dallas, Fort Worth, and Arlington face camel crickets in basements and crawl spaces. Bright porch lights, white security floodlights, and unsealed garage doors are the biggest drivers of indoor cricket invasions in North Texas.