Bugs - Soldier Crickets?

Question

Due to the poorly taken care of yards and such in our neighborhood, bugs run rampant. But ESPECIALLY a certain kind of cricket that my mom calls "Soldier Crickets." They basically look like grasshoppers, just a lot spikier, and much more frightening. They're black in their main color, and have yellow undersides when they're grown, but just red stripes when they're still growing.

These things eat all greenery, and nothing else eats them. Cats, dogs, birds, frogs, NOTHING will eat them (not to mention they're hard to kill). They don't seem to play ANY part in the food chain whatsoever from as far as I can see.

Does anyone else know if these things have ANY purpose at all? I've accepted that we'll never get rid of them-- I just want to know what the purpose of their existence is. If they're food for anything else, or if they eat other things that are more harmful.

So, tell me, are these things just a waste of space or not?!

Answer 1

We call them cave crickets out here.  They are disgusting little b******s and I haven't found anything that suggests they serve a real purpose.

I had them bad at my old house (ironically, it was in a very well-to-do neighborhood) and one thing I found to help cut them back a bit was to go around the house and seal everything so that there were fewer entries for them.  Also, they seem to like wood-sided houses better than other types, perhaps because the rot gives them more to eat.  Lush vegitation right up on the house draws them inside more as well.  Try keeping all your greenery a foot or two away from your house (one trick I learned from a neighbor was to put a slab of concrete around the house so that nothing grew.  You can pretty it up by putting potted flowers and whatnot on the slab).

I feel for you.  They are so nasty and I don't know if you have ever had one jump at you yet, but it hurts like a beast when they hit you.