30 THE DOMESTIC CRICKET. 
cording to some lasts all the year round, they become very 
noisy at night and if at all numerous, sleep becomes an im- 
possibility to people of a nervous constitution. Their numer- 
ous eggs are deposited throughout the warm season, or as 
long as the male produces music, but chiefly in spring. By 
means of a long ovipositor the female hides the elongated 
and yellow eggs in the earth of its home or nest, and the 
young hatch in the course of ten to twelve days. The young 
crickets resemble the adult ones, and after undergoing a 
number of transformations, assume the winged form with- 
out having passed through a resting pupal stage. The in- 
sect, having been domesticated for so many centuries, has 
in course of time somewhat changed its habits, and this ac- 
counts for the fact that we can find them in all stages at al- 
most any time, though most of them winter as pupe and 
adults. Wherever numerous some of them leave the house 
during summer, and exist out doors, preferring stone walls 
and out-houses for their domiciles, but they all return to the 
warmer houses as soon as it becomes cold. During the sum- 
mer they are sometimes attracted to the electric light. 
Being domesticated they eat many things that the 
wild species of crickets, which are: more or less car- 
nivorous, would not eat. But they have not lost their ap- 
petite for the flesh of insects, and if a number of them are 
confined over night ina small box but few badly crippled 
specimens will be found in the morning; the hind legs, which 
drop off quite readily, have nearly all been devoured, and of 
the weaker individuals only portions of the skin remain to 
tell the story of acannibalistic feast. House-crickets are now 
very general feeders, and sometimes cause damage by eating 
clothes, especially if these are wet; in fact it seems that they 
are attracted by moisture and the general belief that if a 
cricket has been killed its relatives will take revenge by eat- 
ing the clothes of the murderer is based on this preference. 
It is not very difficult to prevent the undue increase of 
these noisy and uninvited tenants of our houses and there 
are a number of methods by which we can succeed. They 
are attracted to such tempting. baits as carrots, which can 
be poisoned, and which will kill them in large fH entacies. The 
