Camel crickets are found on every continent except Antarctica, but in North America they’re most common throughout the eastern and central United States. Outdoors, they live in caves, hollow logs, and under rocks. Indoors, they gravitate toward basements, crawlspaces, and garages. If you’ve spotted one in your home, you’re far from alone: researchers estimate there could be as many as 700 million camel crickets living in and around homes across the eastern U.S.
Geographic Range Across North America
Several species of camel cricket live in North America, but the most common one found in homes is actually an invasive species from Asia. The greenhouse camel cricket is native to Japan or the Sichuan region of China and was first recorded on this continent in 1898, when it turned up in a Minnesota greenhouse. Since then, it has spread across the eastern and central United States and into parts of Canada, with confirmed reports stretching from New England south into Georgia and South Carolina, and as far west as Kansas.
A 2014 study published in PeerJ used citizen scientists to photograph and collect camel crickets from homes and found something surprising: the Asian species had almost completely displaced native camel crickets in residential settings. In North Carolina, where the data was richest, 92% of homes that submitted camel cricket samples had the Asian species rather than any native one. A second Asian species has also established itself, but so far it appears limited to the northeastern U.S., with records from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey.
Native camel cricket species still exist across much of the continent, but they tend to stay in wild habitats. The ones you find in your house are overwhelmingly the invasive greenhouse variety.
Natural Outdoor Habitats
Camel crickets are sometimes called cave crickets, and the name fits. Caves are their signature habitat, offering the constant darkness and moisture they need. But they’re far from limited to caves. You’ll find them in wells, rotten logs, stumps, and hollow trees, as well as under damp leaves, stones, boards, and fallen logs. Any outdoor spot that stays cool, dark, and moist can support them.
Pitfall trapping in urban yards in Raleigh, North Carolina, revealed just how densely they can cluster near buildings. Researchers collected up to 52 individual camel crickets from a single yard over just two days of sampling. The closer the traps were to the house, the more crickets they caught. Traps placed one meter from a home’s foundation consistently captured more crickets than the two more distant traps combined. This suggests that even outdoors, camel crickets are drawn to the shelter and moisture that human structures provide.
Where They Show Up Indoors
Inside a building, camel crickets seek out the same conditions they prefer outside: darkness and moisture. The most common indoor locations are basements, crawlspaces, and garages. They also turn up in storage buildings, bathrooms, and laundry rooms, anywhere humidity tends to be higher than the rest of the house. If you have stacked boxes, stored fabric, or rarely disturbed corners, those are prime spots.
They don’t typically reproduce indoors unless conditions are consistently dark and damp. A dry, well-lit basement is far less appealing to them than a damp crawlspace with an exposed dirt floor. This is why moisture control is the single most effective way to discourage them. Keeping indoor humidity in the 50% range with a dehumidifier makes the environment uncomfortable enough that they’re less likely to stick around.
What Drives Them Inside
Camel crickets move into homes when outdoor conditions become less hospitable. Late summer drought can dry out their preferred hiding spots under logs and leaf litter, pushing them toward the moisture radiating from foundations and basement walls. Cold weather in fall has a similar effect, as dropping temperatures make the warmth escaping from buildings attractive. Heavy rain can also flush them out of ground-level shelters and toward higher, drier entry points like garage doors and basement windows.
They enter through any gap they can fit through: cracks in foundations, gaps around pipes, poorly sealed basement windows, and spaces under doors. Because they’re nocturnal and prefer dark spaces, an infestation can grow for weeks before you notice it. The first sign is often a startling encounter when you flip on a light in the basement.
Potential Damage to Your Home
Camel crickets are omnivores that feed on organic matter, and inside a home that can mean your belongings. They eat fabrics, clothing, houseplants, and paper products. They’ll also consume other small insects. The damage is rarely catastrophic, but stored clothing, cardboard boxes, and curtains in damp rooms are all fair game. If you have a large population in a basement or crawlspace, the cumulative damage to stored items can add up over time.
Keeping Them Out
Because camel crickets are chasing moisture, reducing humidity is the most direct fix. A dehumidifier set to keep relative humidity in the low-to-mid 50s makes basements and crawlspaces far less attractive. Beyond that, sealing entry points matters: caulk cracks in the foundation, install door sweeps on garage and basement doors, and make sure window wells have proper covers and drainage.
Outside, reduce their habitat near your home by moving firewood piles, leaf litter, and mulch away from the foundation. Keep ground-level vegetation trimmed so air circulates and the soil near your walls dries out. Since trapping data shows camel crickets concentrate within a meter or two of the house, even modest changes to that narrow perimeter can make a noticeable difference.