Camel Cricket

Camel crickets (Rhaphidophoridae) are wingless, humpbacked orthopterans 13–33 mm long, tan to mottled brown, with extremely long antennae — often twice body length — and greatly enlarged hind femora. Lacking wings, they neither fly nor stridulate, so infestations are silent. Development is hemimetabolous: females insert eggs into moist substrate in late summer or autumn using a long, sword-like ovipositor, and nymphs pass through roughly 8–10 instars over several months. Most populations complete one generation per year, with nymphs and adults overwintering in stable, humid microclimates. Adults live several months; the greenhouse camel cricket (D. asynamora), an Asian introduction, now dominates many North American structural populations.

They are strictly nocturnal and negatively phototactic, retreating from light into dark voids by day. When disturbed they jump erratically and often toward the disturbance — a startle defense that unsettles occupants but carries no bite risk or venom. Camel crickets have no aggregation pheromone in the wasp or cockroach sense, yet they cluster wherever humidity and harborage are ideal, so counts in a single crawlspace can reach hundreds. Feeding is scavenging and omnivorous: fungi, plant debris, dead insects, fabrics, paper, and cardboard. Populations can damage stored textiles, boxes, and insulation facing, and heavy die-offs leave carcasses that feed dermestid beetles and other secondary pests.