Acheta domesticus, commonly called the house cricket, is a species of cricket most likely native to Western Asia, but between 1950 and 2000 it became the standard feeder insect for the pet and research industries and spread worldwide.
Description
The house cricket is typically gray or brownish in color, growing to in length. Males and females look similar, but females will have a brown-black, needle-like
ovipositor extending from the center rear, approximately the same length as the cerci, the paired
appendages towards the rear-most segment of the cricket. On males, the
cercus are more prominent.
Diet
The house cricket is an
omnivore that eats a range of plant and animal matter.
Crickets in the wild consume flowers, leaves, fruits, grasses and other insects
(including
Cannibalism).
Crickets in captivity will accept fruits (e.g.
, oranges,
), vegetables (e.g.
,
, squash,
Leaf vegetable), grains (e.g.
oatmeal,
cornmeal, cooked
,
alfalfa,
wheat germ,
rice cereal), various
and commercial cricket food.
Life cycle
House crickets take two to three months to complete their life cycle at . They have no special overwintering stage, but can survive cold weather in and around buildings, and in dumps where heat from fermentation may sustain them. Eggs are deposited in whatever moist substrate is available. Juveniles resemble the adults except for being smaller and wingless.
Diseases
The house cricket was essentially eliminated from the cricket-breeding industries of North America and Europe by the appearance of cricket paralysis virus which spread rapidly in Europe in 2002 and then in the United States in 2010. The virus is extremely lethal to this species of cricket and a few others, and left many hobbyists and researchers without adequate feeder insects. It has been replaced by the Jamaican field cricket, which is resistant to cricket paralysis virus and has many of the desirable features of the house cricket.
As food
The house cricket is an
edible insects. It is farmed in South-East Asia and parts of Europe and North America for human consumption. In Asia, it is said to become more popular than many native cricket species due to what consumers claimed was their superior taste and texture.
[ Here's Why You Should Start Eating (More) Bugs ] Dry roasting is common and is considered the most nutritious method of preparing them, though they are often sold
deep frying as well.
Farmed house crickets are mostly freeze-dried and often processed into a powder known as
cricket flour.
In Europe, the house cricket is officially approved for use in food products in
Switzerland (since 2017)
[Bundesamt für Lebensmittelsicherheit und Veterinärwesen (2017-04-28): "Insects as food" (German only)] and in the
European Union member states (since 2022). In the EU, the house cricket was approved as novel food in frozen, dried and powdered forms with the
Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/188 of 10 February 2022.
[EU Commission (11 February 2022): Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/188 of 10 February 2022 authorising the placing on the market of frozen, dried and powder forms of Acheta domesticus as a novel food under Regulation (EU) 2015/2283 of the European Parliament and of the Council, and amending Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2017/2470.] Before that, the European Food Safety Authority had published a safety assessment on August 17, 2021, stating that frozen and dried formulations from whole house crickets are safe for consumption.
[EFSA (17 August 2021): Safety of frozen and dried formulations from whole house crickets (Acheta domesticus) as a Novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. In: EFSA Journal 2021;19(8):6779.]
Nutritional value
House crickets are an incomplete protein source, deficient in tryptophan and lysine.
They contain both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.
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