Cricket Lifespan Chart

The cricket chirping behind my fridge in January was, it turns out, a house cricket that had moved in for the warmth and would happily live there for two months. The one I hear in the garden in late summer is a field cricket on a tighter clock, racing to breed before the first frost ends it. Same chirp, very different schedules.

Crickets build their lives around temperature more than almost any insect. Most spend the cold months as eggs or nymphs in the soil, grow up over spring and summer, then live out a short adult season of chirping and mating. A few, like the camel crickets in basements, break the pattern and last a year or two.

This chart lists the adult lifespan and full life cycle of 12 cricket types, why some chirp and others stay silent, and which ones are not really crickets at all. Use it for feeder-insect planning, a science project, or to settle what is singing in the yard.

Cricket Lifespan Chart

Most crickets live under a year, with a short adult stage of a few weeks to a few months. The total life cycle counts the egg and nymph stages, which is where the longer-lived types spend their time. The table below gives both numbers for each kind.

The outliers are the camel and cave crickets, which can last one to two years because they grow slowly in cool, damp places. Crickets are insects in the order Orthoptera, the same group as grasshoppers and katydids. If you want the wider view, our bug lifespan chart sets them against other insects.

Which Crickets Live the Longest?

Camel and cave crickets top the list at one to two years, helped by the steady, sheltered conditions of basements and caves. Mole crickets come next, living up to three years in their underground burrows. Among the chirping garden types, field crickets and two-spotted crickets last longest, at two to four months as adults.

Which Crickets Have the Shortest Lifespan?

Ground crickets and tree crickets sit at the short end, with adults living one to two months. House crickets get eight to ten weeks, which is why they are farmed in such numbers as feeder insects. The shorter the adult life, the more the species depends on a fast, warm-season breeding push.

The Cricket Life Cycle: Egg, Nymph, Adult

Crickets go through incomplete metamorphosis, with only three stages: egg, nymph, and adult. There is no pupa and no caterpillar-like larva, which is the opposite of how a beetle or a butterfly grows up. A cricket nymph hatches looking like a tiny, wingless adult and gets bigger with each molt.

A female lays her eggs in soil or plant stems using a long, needle-like ovipositor at the tip of her abdomen. Many species pass the winter as eggs, then hatch in spring. The nymph molts through several stages, called instars, growing its wings only at the final molt into adulthood. You can compare egg shapes across insects in our insect egg identification chart.

Why Crickets Chirp, and the Thermometer Cricket

Only male crickets chirp, and only the true crickets and their close relatives can do it at all. They make the sound by stridulation, rubbing a sharp scraper on one wing against a file-like ridge on the other. The song attracts females and warns off rival males. Crickets even hear it through ears set into their front legs, just below the knee.

One species turns this into a party trick. The snowy tree cricket chirps faster as the air warms, a link known as Dolbear’s law, which earned it the nickname thermometer cricket. Count its chirps over 14 seconds, add 40, and you get a rough temperature in Fahrenheit. The Forest Preserve District of Will County notes the trick works best between about 55 and 100 degrees.

Factors That Affect Cricket Lifespan

Cricket lifespans swing with conditions, and temperature does most of the steering.

• Temperature: warmth speeds crickets through their stages, so indoor crickets often outlive outdoor ones that meet the first frost.
• Species and habitat: sheltered burrowers like camel and mole crickets live far longer than exposed garden species.
• Food and moisture: crickets are omnivores, and steady food and damp conditions stretch the nymph stage and the adult life.
• Predators: birds, lizards, frogs, and spiders take heavy numbers of both nymphs and adults.

Care in captivity: kept warm and fed, house crickets reliably reach the top of their range, which is why they suit beneficial insects work and feeder colonies.

How Cricket Lifespan Compares to Other Insects

Crickets share their three-stage growth with grasshoppers and cockroaches, all in the same broad group of insects that skip the pupa. Here is how their lifespans line up against a few familiar bugs.

The split in the last column matters. Crickets, grasshoppers, and cockroaches grow by molting into bigger versions of themselves, while flies and butterflies rebuild through a pupa. For the other end of the lifespan scale, our cat lifespan chart shows how household pets compare.

Which of These Are Not True Crickets?

Several names in the chart are crickets only by nickname. True crickets belong to the family Gryllidae, and not all of these do. The Mormon cricket is the biggest surprise: it is a shield-backed katydid in the family Tettigoniidae, not a cricket at all, as Britannica explains. It is flightless and travels in destructive rangeland swarms.

Camel crickets and cave crickets are the same kind of animal, both in the family Rhaphidophoridae. They are wingless, they never chirp, and they scavenge in basements and caves, which the University of Maine Extension lists as common nuisance invaders. Mole crickets sit in their own family, Gryllotalpidae, and do chirp from their burrows. All of them are still in the order Orthoptera, so they are cousins, just not true crickets.

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FAQs

How long do crickets live?

Most crickets live under a year, with an adult stage of a few weeks to a few months. Camel and cave crickets are the exception, lasting one to two years.

Which cricket lives the longest?

Camel and cave crickets live longest, often one to two years. Mole crickets can reach up to three years counting their long underground stage.

Why do crickets chirp?

Only males chirp, by rubbing their wings together in a process called stridulation. The song attracts females and warns off other males.

Can you tell the temperature from cricket chirps?

Roughly, yes. Count the chirps of a snowy tree cricket over 14 seconds and add 40 for the temperature in Fahrenheit. This is known as Dolbear’s law.

Are camel crickets and cave crickets the same thing?

Largely, yes. Both belong to the family Rhaphidophoridae, are wingless and silent, and live in dark, damp places like caves and basements.

Is the Mormon cricket a real cricket?

No. The Mormon cricket is a shield-backed katydid in the family Tettigoniidae. It earned the name from the chirping sounds the males make.

Do crickets go through a pupa stage like caterpillars?

No. Crickets have incomplete metamorphosis with only three stages: egg, nymph, and adult. The nymph already looks like a small wingless cricket.