Texas Custodians on Bug Cleanup

As the annual cricket swarm in Texas recently reached its peak, professional cleaning companies were busy answering calls to clean up piles of the insects around homes and businesses. The sales manager at a cleaning company in San Antonio said she hasn’t seen this many crickets in about four years, KENS Channel 5 news reports.

Workers at Jan-Pro Cleaning Services have been responding to nonstop calls from businesses. The crews sweep and vacuum up the insects, dead or alive. Prompt cleanup is necessary when there is such a large number of insects, especially when businesses use pesticides as the bugs smell when they start to pile on top of each other and die.

Facility managers need to tightly seal all areas of their buildings that crickets could use to gain entry, such as door thresholds, windows, and soffits along eaves, advises the Texas A & M AgriLife Extension. Crickets that come indoors may damage furniture, drapes, or wall covering with staining from their feces or vomit.

As lighting attracts swarms of crickets, facility managers also should consider dimming outdoor lights during cricket season.

Among the advice CMM offers on controlling the population of insects and other pests inside your facility is setting up a pest-sighting protocol: catch one of the insects seen in or around your facility and provide it to your pest management professionals, record and communicate when and where the pest was seen, and provide your pest management professionals with assistance as they determines how pests may have found a way inside the facility.