Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

Cicadas are on the wane towards the end of March – I still haven’t found the egg-laying site containing “Jack”s offspring ;-)But Black field crickets (Teleogryllus commodus) are still making a heck of a noise in the late afternoon/evening, especially in the North Island and top of the SouthTeleogryllus commodus (Supplied)You won’t see them often, as they hide in cracks in the soil during the day; when the sun goes down the crickets will come to the surface to eat grasses – they can do a lot of damage to pasture and lawns, leaving bare soil around their home cracks.Black field crickets make their characteristic noise by rubbing their wings together. (Mating calls!)Control is quite hard – In the old days, Farmers used wheat, soaked in Maldison, strewn over the paddock, in early summer (January is the month before crickets become adults and hence, reproduce!).For a lawn it might be a nice idea to pour water with a good dash of dish-washing liquid down the holes of these insects in the middle of the day; The cric