Weird Things You Never Knew About Crickets

​If you have read many of my blogs here you’ll know that I talk a lot about edible insects. My preferred one is the cricket simply because I have had experience with cricket flour in food products. But there are also some rather wacky facts about these little chirpers that you may not know about. Possibly after reading this, you’ll wish you hadn’t bothered once you read the things I have discovered about this unusually loud little flying critter.
 
1 – Cricket Fighting Is A Thing In China
 
In recent decades, the Chinese have revived the once dead art of cricket fighting. There are several prize fighters in the ranks and the owner of one of these wonderful sports specimens will take great care of their charge. Winning fighting crickets dine on specially formulated diets of worms and highly nutritious assorted other meals. We somehow suspect that once a champion starts to have a losing streak, it becomes part of a ceremonial dinner marking the end of a career.
 
2 – The Voice of A Cricket Has Symbolic Meaning
 
Again, thanks to the Chinese, crickets are cherished. Well, those with the best singing voices. These superstars are housed in intricately beautiful homes that are made of bamboo. In fact, a proud owner of such a singer will have the cricket and cricket home on display to show how much they appreciate the voice of the insect. By the way, in China, a singing cricket in your home is a sign of good luck and the possibility of impending wealth.
 
3 – Breeding Is Big Business In The United States
 
Leave it to the Americans to jump on something like this. The breeding of crickets for the pet industry is a multimillion dollar industry. When we say they are bred for the pet industry, crickets are typically used as a food source – for reptiles. Some warehouse-sized facilities can produce upwards of 50-million of the chirping buggers at a time. One the other side of the coin, a cricket virus a few years ago did impact the industry but it has since bounced back.
 
4 – The Average Cricket Knows a Lot Of Different Songs
 
As it turns out, the original jam musicians could easily have been the cricket. That’s because this edible insect happens to have a whole lot of songs known by heart. Each song also serves a specific purpose. For example, there is a song that a cricket will chirp when it is seeking female company. There is a song that will announce that a female has entered into a partnership with a specific male. There are even songs used to defend territory when other males arrive on scene.
 
If You Are Interested In More About Edible Insects
 
I have written an eBook on the subject. It is titled “The Foodie Guide To Farming Insects For Protein” and with it you will learn how to start and maintain your own cricket farm in the space of a small closet. My eBook is available from Amazon.