Here’s a pic of my black crawler. I was wrong about the antennae, but it definitely looks like a cricket. It’s about the length of my thumb.

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_grasshoppers/MottledFieldCricket.htm

This should get rid of them

http://goo.gl/CKCCzx

DA, don’t click on that link…..spider warning.

neomyrtus_ said:

http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_grasshoppers/MottledFieldCricket.htm

This one is black, not brown or mottled.

Shiny black, the light reflects off the back as seen in the pic.

We get those things, ‘orrid they are, stink like rotting fish when they die, and they tend to do this in large groups around damp areas.

As I mentioned in Chat yesterday, these things prefer crawling but I have seen them fly. Also like hiding in dark spots, such as under the counter and in the dustpan.

Divine Angel said:

Shiny black, the light reflects off the back as seen in the pic.

Somalian cricket?

Yes, definitely a cricket. (Not a mole cricket or a cockroach.)

Thankyou for your enquiry.

Unfortunately, the photo and description supplied is inadequate for taxonomic identification purposes. It is a field cricket, probably in subfam. Gryllinae (Gryllidae). The mottled brown cricket (Lepidogryllus comparatus) is a common resident of Brisbane households. The black field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus and Teleogryllus commodus) are widespread native crickets also found in households Should you wish for an accurate identification, a specimen could be forwarded to the Brisbane museum, depending on the availability of taxonomic experts (http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Ask+an+Expert/Identification+guidelines).

There are over 700 species of Gryllidae in Australia, so you may appreciate that species identification is difficult without a specimen.

They are all just crickets. They make noise from under the ground. And sometimes from under the floorboards of my practice. Goodness knows why they go in there. The boards can only be a couple of inches above the dirt, and it should be very, very dry under there. You can’t get under the building. And the building was put up in the 1940s or thereabouts. If they make too much noise I just go and stomp above them to shut them up for a while.

neomyrtus_ said:

Thankyou for your enquiry.

Unfortunately, the photo and description supplied is inadequate for taxonomic identification purposes. It is a field cricket, probably in subfam. Gryllinae (Gryllidae). The mottled brown cricket (Lepidogryllus comparatus) is a common resident of Brisbane households. The black field cricket (Teleogryllus oceanicus and Teleogryllus commodus) are widespread native crickets also found in households Should you wish for an accurate identification, a specimen could be forwarded to the Brisbane museum, depending on the availability of taxonomic experts (http://www.qm.qld.gov.au/Find+out+about/Ask+an+Expert/Identification+guidelines).

There are over 700 species of Gryllidae in Australia, so you may appreciate that species identification is difficult without a specimen.

Thanks for that :)

If you want additional information about this group of crickets the following link may be helpful.

http://esperancewildlife.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/field-cricket-lepidogryllus-sp.html