Ruud Kleinpaste: Noisy and damage causing insects in the garden

Cicadas are slowly on the wane towards the end of March. It’s been a pretty Noisy March so far, typical of the regular system whereby Cicadas have a three, five, or seven year life cycle. 

Black field crickets (Teleogryllus commodus) are still making a heck of a noise in the late afternoon/evening, especially in the North Island and top of the South. They’ll be enjoying that dodgy boy-girl party for at least another month or more! Black field crickets make their characteristic noise by rubbing their wings together (great mating calls). 

You won’t see them often, as they hide in cracks in the soil during the day, but when the sun goes down the crickets will come to the surface to eat grasses – they can do a lot of damage to pasture and lawns, leaving bare soil around their home cracks. 

Control is quite hard. In the old days, farmers used wheat, soaked in Maldison, strewn over the paddock in early summer (January is the month before crickets become adults and hence, reproduce). For a lawn it might be a nice idea to pour water with a good dash of dish-washing liquid down the holes of these insects in the middle of a hot day. The crickets emerge in the noon-day sun (because the soapy water stings their eyes, I reckon) and the sun will heat the black bodies up real quick (Natue’s Micro-wave oven!). 

Another “singer” in autumn is the Katydid (Caedicia simplex); mostly in the afternoon and early evening. 

It creates a rather unique noise by rubbing the edges of its stiff forewings together, like a fingernail on a comb. The noise has the quality produced by a ventriloquist – the insect “throws its voice” so you can never be sure where it is calling from. 

Katydids feed on garden plants, especially flowers, and they truly seem to like the roses and Dahlias that flower in autumn! They are well-camouflaged on green plants, so birds, frogs, and lizards can find it tricky to locate them. 

Gardeners who feel they’re being “attacked” by these insects often ask if there’s a way to “get them” with some insecticide… “Only when you’re very good at ventriloquism” is my answer – I love them!! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Tame podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
There be climb past some men in the garden.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Good morning, A very good morning to you, Jack, And
I'm coming to you from girl who Order pack. How
good is it?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
And oh how good? You've been in the owne for
a few days, have you?

Speaker 4 (00:25):
Yep?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
I've been here most of most of the week, mostly
with school kids and all that. And today between ten
and one it's the locals that can come and see
us and cut all my water and my oh my
am I frog. I've got a live frog with me.

Speaker 2 (00:41):
You're traveling with a frog?

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Well, yeah, I guess it depends how you travel with them.
But yeah, you just got to keep a close on them.
How big is your frog? Is it a New Zealand frog?

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yeah, no, it's just Australian but it's full grown. It's nice. Yeah,
And we get it to walk around in the and
all the kids try to.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Dig and to the frog and the winter get along.

Speaker 3 (01:06):
Oh, certainly they do.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
Oh yeah, lovely. But that's not what I was going
to talk about. I was going to talk about the
fact that we finally got some some black field crickets
really making a noise. Did you notice that night?

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Yeah, they it feels like they're kind of late in
the year. Is that Is that weird?

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Am I wrong?

Speaker 2 (01:25):
There late in the season for the cricket.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
No, they normally get here at this time of the year, right, Okay,
the cicadas are getting bit slow. We've had a fabulous
year of cicada so far. But I thought about talk
about the Blackfield crickets because they can do a bit
of damage in the garden too. And yeah, and that's
that's about. So they're actually having a go and talking
to their friends and all that sort of stuff and
doing the mating for the next lot. But the way

(01:49):
to control them is a bit is actually quite funny
because these things live in little holes in the ground
during the day. And you know, on your lawn if
you like, they made little holes all right the place right, Yeah.
And and what you then can do.

Speaker 4 (02:05):
Is career, is you you pour some hot.

Speaker 3 (02:08):
Water with good dish of dish washing liquid in it.
The dish washing liquid gets their eyes very sore and
they go like holy and they come out of their
hole on the top. And if you've got a good
day with some that hot air and the hot you know,
raised from the sun basically fry them to stuffery. It's

(02:33):
so that is a really.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Cool way of getting a bit of black Field crickets.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
It sounds a bit rough for them though, sort of medieval,
almost rude.

Speaker 3 (02:44):
Sorry mate, there they shouldn't be there. So microwave oven
and the other thing. And that's much more fun for
the kids to see the singer that Katie did, which
is in the afternoon and evening. It's beautiful, noisy thing
and it rubs the edges of its wings together and
it does all that sort of stuff. And then when
you finally find that, the kids go, okay, did it

(03:07):
Katie did?

Speaker 4 (03:07):
And that's basically what it is.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Really. They like ventriloquism because you can't find them unless
you know where they are. But because they can, they
can throw their voice hard to find. The kids found
it lovely to try and find them out ventriloquism. That's great.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
And yeah, yeah, so that there's the green. They're almost
grasshopper like the Katie did, Yes.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Exectly and they're beautiful things. Yeah, very good.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Hey, I'm just giving you sort of a semi regular updates.
The pomegranate is still attached to the pomegranate tree. So
that's good news.

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And I've just got to I've got to try and
work out exactly when to peck it. It's too early
just yet, it's too early, just it's not quite red enough.
But maybe we can do some research and try and
try and get a good huge because I'm not sure
if it's you know, if it's going to remain warm
enough in Auckland for it for it to sort of
rip into the to the appropriately all like it wood

(04:01):
in the Middle East. But maybe it will. I'm not
too sure.

Speaker 3 (04:05):
Yeah as well, I'm quite sure it will because I've
heard from other people that that can happen. It doesn't
have to be that hope, because most of the growth
has has already taken place. Yeah, now it's now finally
sidling it out. But I'll have a look at that,
because I think you can feel as when you touched them,
they becomes You can easily pinch him a bit, you
know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Has it really it's got a really robust stork. So
the stork connecting the pomegranate to the tree is almost
like a branch in itself. It's really thick, and so
I don't think you would rip it off like you would,
you know, a plum more a lemon or something like that.
But I yeah, but I want to make sure that
I pick at it exactly the right time because there
is a lot of expectation on this pomegrad.

Speaker 5 (04:47):
There's been a lot of high and I'm going to
put the pressure on my favorite, my favorite helper, Julie,
who was in the one of those most garden of
people that knows everything, you know.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
What I mean.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
Perfect, Yeah, yeah, that sounds great. Hey, thank you so much.
Trouble Home Station, catching him very soon.

Speaker 3 (05:04):
Bye bye.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
There there's Roald time in the garden.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
First. For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen
live to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.