Spider Cricket

Diestrammena asynamora

Spider Cricket

Diestrammena asynamora

Harmless

Not dangerous

Harmless, and not a spider. It is a cricket with very long legs, six of them rather than eight, and no venom or fangs at all. It cannot bite you in any meaningful sense. Its entire defence is to jump towards whatever startled it, which is unnerving and completely empty.

Size13–33 mm body, with antennae and legs far longer

MarkingsSix legs, not eight — the quickest way to settle it · Long curved antennae, which no spider has

WhereDamp, dark places: basements, crawl spaces, garages, wells, and under logs and stones outdoors. It wants humidity above all.

How to tell it apart

Six legs, not eight — the quickest way to settle it
Long curved antennae, which no spider has
Humped back and no waist; spiders have two obvious body sections
Enormous back legs built for jumping
Mottled tan and brown, often banded

Where you’ll find it

Across most of the United States. The species usually found indoors is the greenhouse camel cricket, an introduced Asian species that has become far more common in American basements than the native ones.

Damp, dark places: basements, crawl spaces, garages, wells, and under logs and stones outdoors. It wants humidity above all.

How it behaves

It jumps when startled, and it jumps towards the disturbance rather than away, because it has no idea where you are — it navigates by touch and vibration in the dark. That behaviour is why people are frightened of them out of all proportion to what they can do, which is nothing. They are nocturnal, silent (unlike other crickets, they do not chirp), and they eat fungus, decaying plant material and occasionally fabric.

You’ve found one indoors

Dry the space out. Camel crickets are a humidity signal more than a pest problem: a dehumidifier, a fixed leak, or better crawl-space ventilation removes the reason they are there. Sticky traps along the walls will show you how many you actually have. They can chew fabric and cardboard in numbers, so it is worth dealing with, but nothing about them is dangerous.

Common questions

Are spider crickets poisonous?

No. They have no venom and no fangs. They are crickets, not spiders, and they cannot deliver a meaningful bite.

Why do they jump at me?

Because they cannot see where you are. In the dark they detect vibration and jump towards it as a startle response, which reads as an attack and is nothing of the kind.

How do I tell a spider cricket from a spider?

Count the legs. Six means cricket, eight means spider. Antennae also settle it instantly — spiders do not have them.

How do I get rid of them?

Reduce the damp. They are in your basement because it is humid, and a dehumidifier or a repaired leak does far more than spraying anything. Sealing gaps at ground level helps too.

Commonly confused with

Cellar Spider Harmless
Carolina Wolf Spider Harmless

Keep identifying

Identify another animal from a photo or return to the Spiders guide.

Previous: Jumping Spider · Next: Woodlouse Spider

Where this was checked

iNaturalist — Tachycines asynamorus (= Diestrammena asynamora) checked 2026-07-30
NC State Extension — Camel Crickets checked 2026-07-30

Last reviewed 2026-07-29. We identify, we don’t diagnose — what we can and can’t tell you.