Cricket Facts for Kids

23 Cricket Facts For Kids

1. Cricket is the common name for a large group of jumping insects in the Gryllidae family.
2. Only true crickets are found in the Gryllidae family, but many other insects use the name cricket.
3. You can identify a cricket by its whip-like antennas on its round head, attached to its cylinder-shaped body, and have powerful hind legs.
4. Crickets and their ancestors first started to appear at least 250 million years ago.
5. Crickets have a worldwide distribution and can be found on every continent, except for Antarctica.
6. At any one time there are hundreds of billions, if not trillions, of crickets living worldwide.
7. Cricket species can be either herbivorous (eat only plants) or omnivorous (eat meat and plants).
8. Crickets are widely known for the chirping sounds made by male crickets during the nighttime.
9. Male crickets create that chirp sound by rubbing their front wings together.
10. Male crickets create the chirping noise to attract a female cricket for mating.
11. Every cricket species has its own unique chirping noise, no two cricket species have the same chirp.
12. Male crickets can tell you the temperature outside by their chirps. Count the number of chirps in 60 seconds, divide that number 4, then add 40 to that number, and you’ll know the temperature outside.
13. Crickets are nocturnal insects and only are active during the nighttime.
14. There are around 900 true cricket species found worldwide.
15. Cricket species come in a few different colors, including but not limited to black, brown, green, red, and tan.
16. Cricket species come in many different sizes, some as short as 0.375 inches and others as big as 2 inches.
17. The largest cricket species is the tobacco cricket (Brachytrupes membranaceus) with a length of 2 inches.
18. The smallest cricket species is the Cuban ground cricket (Neonemobius cubensis) with a length of 0.375 inches.
19. The average cricket species can jump between 2 and 3 feet.
20. The average cricket species lifespan is between 80 and 100 days.
21. The average cricket species weight is between 0.2 and 0.8 grams.
22. Jiminy Cricket is a famous Walt Disney character in the 1940 movie Pinocchio.
23. Crickets are a common snack in many southern Asian countries, like Thailand and Vietnam.

Cricket Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the below images will be helpful for your research on crickets. Below are three pictures of various cricket species. These pictures should help you better understand the different types of crickets found around the world.

A picture close up of a cricket.

A picture of a cricket walking on the floor.

A picture of a cricket in the grass.