It is a cricket of some kind if that is of comfort. not a spider due to 6 legs. Do you hear them chirping doen there when you are one floor up?

Oh ugh-a cricket. I hate them when they are inside.

Babs my first thought was a cricket, because of the back legs and what I thought was six legs (didn't want to look long enough to count lol). Oddly, I do not hear chirping, and I've had a ton of "normal" crickets in the house that chirp pretty loud. I'd think this one would necessitate ear plugs lol.

But the body shape threw me. It seems kind of round and fat for a cricket. Ugh, I don't know. Normally I like crickets - I don't even mind when they're in the house, unless it's at night and they're loud lol. When my kids were smaller, we kept two paper cups in my family room that were the "cricket cups" that were specifically for scooping up crickets and putting them outside. I even have a little brass cricket on my hearth (for good luck!) But these little monsters are creeping me out! Every day I go to empty my dehumidifiers and there they are, just waiting for me...

:)

Dee

“just waiting for me”

Lol Dee!

I don’t blame you. The size alone is creepy!!

Dee, I have never seen one (thank God! it would send me screaming from the room) but your photo, description, and Google lead me to suggest it may be a so-called ”spider cricket.” They like dark basements and like to reproduce there. I saw some suggestions for getting rid of them; the one I liked the best was ”consult a pest control expert.” Yikes!

My faavorite tool for removing bugs I do not want in the house is the vacuum cleaner. you have to empty it out of the house, though.

Ghost cricket. My cat ate one of those this morning with great gusto.

Sequoia I think you're spot on. i got up the courage to google spider crickets and I'm pretty sure that's what it is. The article said to dehumidify the basement but I've been running the dehumidifier constantly since March, emptying the bucket two to three times a day. Plus I've been running dehumidifiers for the last 25 years and have never seen them. LOL doesn't mean they weren't there, just never saw them. My basement is damp (on solid ledge and has a professional drainage system installed), and so it will always tend to dampness. Sigh...

The worst thing is that I read that if you startle one of these critters, they tend to jump AT you. Not so much in attack, but in an attempt to scare you off. Yep, that would do it. Guess I have to formulate a plan....

Thank you all for your help. I am somewhat reassured by knowing (hoping?) they will at the very least stay in the basement haha.

:)

Dee

Oops, cecily, you posted while I was typing! Thank you - looks like spider crickets and ghost crickets are the same. I think my cat would just lay there and look at them lol.

:)

Dee

We used to have those in our basement and they would be on the concrete block walls. We did spray some Raid (horrors!) and then bought a new dehumidifier. Gone. What I didn't like is that they seemed to jump AT you instead of away from you.... ick.

Hahaha, rginnie, that's exactly what I read! They jump AT anything that startles them. Yikes. Now I really don't want to go near them. Last night (before reading up on them) I went to empty the dehumidifiers, which I pour into a bigger bucket. Shelob there was on the wall about five feet away, and when the water hit the bucket she ran away very quickly. I was surprised at the time that the sound of the water spooked her but realize now I was lucky she didn't jump on me lol! Thank goodness she ran AWAY from me!

A side note is that I thought I was doing really well at keeping my basement dry this year, really keeping on top of the dehumidifiers. Guess it's not working so good after all.

:)

Dee