Aussies blasted for 'ridiculous' act as city overrun by swarms of crickets
Thousand of critters have blanketed Melbourne streets, but there's a reason why.
An Aussie city has been overrun with swarms of crickets in recent days sending baffled residents into a panic. Last week, similar scenes unfolded with invasive white butterflies.
Extremely high numbers of the "fairly big" critters have been invading streets, homes, schools and even hospitals in various suburbs across Melbourne with videos and photos shared online showing the extent of the wild "plague".
The scenes have been described as "something out of a horror movie" by some, with others labelling the swarms "terrifying". However Professor Ary Hoffmann from Melbourne University said the reaction he's seen has "worried" him.
"It's a whole lot of panic for nothing," the biology professor told Yahoo News Australia, condemning those who've resorted to harming or otherwise killing the insects. "To call it a plague is just ridiculous. It's part of a natural cycle."
Simple reason for huge cricket numbers
A wetter winter and spring combined with more mild conditions is the driving force behind the population growth, Hoffmann explained. The cricket population was well-fed and higher numbers survived the season – and now they're out to explore.
The native insects eat plant matter, including our lawn, and are usually in the ground so "people don't notice them very much. But they're always there," he said.
"What happens then is when it gets warm, they come out of the ground, they congregate around lights, they congregate around water," he continued. "They tend to go inside and follow the light into the buildings and it's just part of a natural cycle". But right now it's just very hard for people in the city to miss.
Primary school resorts to killing crickets
Scores of Melburnians have expressed their confusion and fears on social media with many revealing their homes were targeted by swarms of crickets. A primary school in Melbourne was also home to hundreds of insects that migrated toward the bathroom, with the vice principal Grant Durham admitting they had to kill them.
Speaking to radio station 3AW’s Jacqui Felgate on Tuesday, Durham said he'd been made aware of "close to 500 crickets in the bathrooms" — around the toilets and "literally coming out of the woodwork".
"They were fairly decent-sized ones. And we didn't know why [it was happening]. So we just had to kill and squash them and get them into bags and we had to get pest control in really quickly," he said.
Residents' 'worrying' reaction to crickets
Elsewhere, online commentators said it's "really odd" to see them in such large numbers. "It's like a plague," one said. "These things terrify me. They blend in with the paving and the roads and are quite literally everywhere in the city and surrounding suburbs. Nowhere is safe," another local lamented online.
But Hoffmann said it "worries" him that people "think they're pests" because Aussies "should appreciate these are native crickets and they're common in urban areas". For him, killing them shouldn't be the answer.
"People are panicking and saying weird things. I had one comment from someone who said, 'oh, they're in my house attacking my woodwork' like they were termites, but they eat plant matter, and that's the danger," he said.
"A lot of people are spraying to try to get rid of them but you can just pick them up and take them outside. If that's an issue, you can turn your lights off if you don't want to attract them".
Hoffman said the large numbers will die down soon enough as the weather begins to cool and spoke of how "they're not s active anymore".
"They'll mate, lay eggs somewhere and they'll move on. It's just a short term thing," he said.
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