Invertebrates

Camel Cricket

Rhaphidophoridae · also called camel cricket, cave cricket, spider cricket, sprickets

Least Concern → omnivore Temperate forest Temperate grassland

A camel cricket is the insect that erupts out of a dark basement corner and leaps straight at your face — not out of aggression, but because it is nearly blind and stone deaf and simply does not know which way to go. Humpbacked, wingless, and half spider in appearance, it is completely harmless, and in the wild it is one of the recyclers that keeps cave ecosystems running.

Overview

Camel crickets are the family Rhaphidophoridae, wingless crickets of caves, cellars, burrows, and damp leaf litter worldwide. They are opportunistic scavengers, eating fungi, decaying matter, and dead insects, and in caves they recycle the nutrients that bats and floods bring in. Indoors they nibble paper, cardboard, and fabric.

Silent and deaf

Because they have no wings, camel crickets cannot chirp and make no sound at all, and they also lack the ears that other crickets carry on their front legs. They navigate by their very long antennae and by touch. Their humped back and spidery legs give them the nickname “spider cricket”.

The alarming jump

A startled camel cricket makes one sudden, powerful leap, and since it cannot see or hear the threat clearly, the jump is essentially random — often, unnervingly, toward the person who disturbed it. It is a startle defence, not an attack. Many species are true cave animals, pale and eyeless, and some caves have their own found-nowhere-else species.

Status

Least Concern — the common species are abundant, and the greenhouse camel cricket, an Asian species spread worldwide in plant pots, is now the one most often found in North American homes. Specialised cave species with tiny ranges are of conservation concern.

Camel Cricket: common questions

Are camel crickets dangerous or harmful?

No. Camel crickets have no venom, do not bite people in any meaningful way, do not sting, and carry no disease. Their alarming reputation comes entirely from their looks, with long spidery legs and a humped body, and from their habit of jumping abruptly toward you when startled. Indoors they can be a genuine nuisance in large numbers, chewing on paper, cardboard, cloth, and stored food and leaving droppings, and they signal a damp problem, but they cause no structural damage and are harmless to handle.

Why do camel crickets jump at you instead of away?

Because they can barely see or hear. Camel crickets have poor eyesight and no ears, so when something large disturbs them they cannot tell which way the threat is, and they respond with a single powerful, more or less random leap. Often that leap happens to be toward the person who startled them, which feels deliberate and aggressive but is not. The sudden jump is thought to be an anti-predator startle response, meant to break a predator's focus and put the cricket somewhere unexpected, after which it freezes or jumps again.

How do I get rid of camel crickets in a basement?

The key is moisture, because camel crickets come indoors chasing humidity and cannot survive long in dry air. Running a dehumidifier, fixing leaks, improving drainage and ventilation, and sealing gaps around foundation walls, doors, vents, and window wells usually clears them out over time. Removing damp cardboard, wood piles, and leaf litter against the house takes away both shelter and food. Sticky traps along walls catch the ones already inside and show whether numbers are dropping. Insecticides give only short-term results if the dampness remains.

What is the difference between a camel cricket and a normal cricket?

A house or field cricket is winged, chirps by rubbing its wings together, has hearing organs on its front legs, and often comes indoors near warmth, sometimes calling at night. A camel cricket is wingless, completely silent, deaf, humpbacked, with much longer legs and antennae, and it seeks out cool damp darkness rather than warmth. Camel crickets also lack the flattened, blade-like egg-laying tube of many female crickets. In short, if it is jumping around your basement in total silence and looks half spider, it is a camel cricket.

Sources & further reading

Written by HideShark Editorial Team · reviewed by HideShark Science Desk. Published September 11, 2026. Last updated September 11, 2026.

Quick facts

Scientific name: Rhaphidophoridae
Diet: An opportunistic omnivore and scavenger that eats fungi, decaying plant matter, leaf litter, and dead and dying insects, and in caves it is a key recycler of the nutrients carried in on bat droppings and flood debris, while in houses it will nibble paper, cardboard, fabric, and stored food
Built like a camel: The name comes from the strongly arched, humped back, and camel crickets also have very long, spindly antennae, often longer than the body, and long springy hind legs, which with the wingless, drab body give them a look somewhere between a cricket and a spider, hence the nickname spider cricket
Silent and deaf: Unlike true crickets and katydids, camel crickets have no wings, so they cannot stridulate and produce no song, and they also lack the hearing organs that other crickets carry on their front legs, relying instead on their enormous antennae and on touch and vibration to sense the world
Creatures of the dark and damp: Camel crickets need constant humidity or they dry out and die, so they live in caves, animal burrows, rotting logs, deep leaf litter, and the undersides of stones, and indoors they turn up in cool damp basements, crawl spaces, garages, and window wells, especially in dry weather when they come inside seeking moisture
Jumping toward trouble: A startled camel cricket jumps suddenly and powerfully, and because it cannot see or hear well it often leaps directly toward the source of the disturbance rather than away from it, which is why people find them so unnerving indoors, though the cricket is harmless and the move is thought to be a startle defence meant to confuse a predator
Cave specialists: Many camel crickets are true cave animals, and the deepest-living species show the classic cave adaptations of pale colour, reduced or absent eyes, longer legs and antennae, and slow metabolism, and some cave systems have their own species found nowhere else
The greenhouse camel cricket: One Asian species, the greenhouse camel cricket, has spread around the world in the soil of potted plants and in heated buildings and is now the camel cricket most often found in homes in eastern North America, having largely replaced the native species indoors
Range: Cool, damp, dark places worldwide, including caves, mines, animal burrows, hollow logs, deep leaf litter, rock crevices, and forest floor, on every continent except Antarctica, with a concentration of species in temperate forests and karst regions, plus species living in basements, crawl spaces, cellars, greenhouses, and outbuildings alongside people.
Conservation status: Least Concern → ≈ The common camel crickets are widespread and abundant in suitable damp habitat and are in no danger, and several species have spread globally with human help and are considered minor nuisances rather than anything at risk. The conservation interest lies with the specialised cave species, and many caves hold camel crickets found nowhere else, which are vulnerable to disturbance of the cave environment, changes in the bat colonies whose droppings feed the cave food web, groundwater pollution, quarrying, and heavy recreational caving, so a number of cave camel crickets are of conservation concern or formally protected in the wild