Mole Cricket

I had a shock one afternoon to see one of the legs of my outdoor chairs is covered with a lot of wooden sawdust.

So, thinking is just the constant soaking of the floor that cause the leg of the chair to give way, i decided to put the chair upside down and started digging with my finger. It was a bad choice. Something came out of the 'hole' which apparently gave me a little shock.

In Singapore, we do encounter crickets. But Mole Cricket is rare here, i posted a picture of a dead one before asking for opionion what was it, i have interesting answers like "Alien", even my husband said so too, until a educator told me it was a cricket, but the fore arms of the insect does not match the picture she attached for me. I researched further, and i managed to classify the insect under cricket but specifically "Mole Cricket". I think it digs into wood and eats them as well. 

Now, i got a live one! Excited to see it alive than a dead shell i had.  Like a amateur scientist, i started measuring it before i lose the insect to the wild.

Then i released the insect, making sure it does not comes into the house because my flooring is also wood! And wow, See how fast it runs! it initially ran into another wooden door, hopefully to reside as a new home, which i insist it to go down, as i observed it does not come back up again as it does not fly.

So, now i have the 'damage control report' to write! 

 

This is what happen to the leg of the chair. I should have know something is wrong. It is water damage, it should be all four legs. But the damage here is only one leg. As we can see, the wood used in Ikea chairs is stuffed wood shavings. That's probably why, it is a easier target for wood insects like mole cricket.

Comparison with a good leg.

 

Mole Cricket stays in the wood, constantly digging, this damage is for the period of 24 hours. It had successful removed part of the bottom, and a hole of 3 cm inside it. Note that the earlier measurement of the insect is about 3.5 cm. So, i supposed it was nicely resting inside when i disturbed it by digging it out using my finger.

So, now, i have a damaged chair to fix. I have to saw part of it off and use some wooden cubes to replace the leg, to regain the balance of the chair.

Still does not know where and how the cricket comes in, we live in high-rise buildings, not at ground level. And mole cricket is not a local insect. I supposed it might comes with the furniture or plants, or even the soil when we 'import' from overseas.

After 2 months from this incident. I have no more occurrence of dead or alive version of mole cricket. I hope this will remain as a memory, a history that will not be repeated.

Jane
Night Deperato Project.