Why do Crickets chirp all night?

And now, it’s time for who’s smarted. Psst. Hey, smarty-pads! Question. Have you ever been to a cricket match? No, no, not that kind of cricket match played with a special flattened paddle bat. I’m talking about another kind of cricket match played by actual crickets.

Wait, crickets can play cricket? No, but they can wrestle. This is Chip Nickerson reporting live from CCW, Cricket Championship Wrestling. Tonight, the title belt is on the line as reigning champ The Big Hopper takes on up and coming superstar Thorax Jones.

Both competitors are in the ring and they’ve already begun chirping at each other. This match promises to be a doozy. Hold on a second. Crickets? Wrestle. Oh, The Big Hopper goes for a quick pin, but Thorax Jones is able to kick out using his six legs.

Okay, smarty-pads, we have got to find out. Why are these crickets wrestling? Why do crickets chirp and sing? And how far can a cricket jump? Oh, Thorax Jones with a tremendous leap off the top rope.

He’s got The Big Hopper in an antennae lock. It’s been a back and forth battle for the CCW heavyweight title. Go Thorax, go. I mean, get ready for another whiff of science and history on… Who’s smarted?

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Okay, smarty pants, unbelievably, I find myself at a wrestling match between two crickets. And while no, in real life, there isn’t actually a cricket championship wrestling league or title matches or a ring with ropes or an announcer.

I guess my work here is through. It is true that crickets will wrestle each other. But why? I’m gonna see if I can break this match up for a second. So I can ask the combatants why they’re doing this.

Excuse me, fellas. Hold on. Break it up. Break it up, you two. I know. I know. I’m sorry. But I just have to know. Why are you wrestling? Big Hopper. Let’s start with you. Well, it turns out we both really like a female cricket named Trish.

I tried to make Thorax Jones leave by chirping at him. But then he wouldn’t take the hint. Then it’s on. Oh, the Big Hopper with a sneaky three-legged sidekick on Thorax while Thorax was being interviewed.

That seems a little extreme. What do you say, Thorax? That’s just something we crickets do. Male crickets don’t like other male crickets getting too close to us. Oh, and Thorax counters with a body slam.

And for a cricket, that body includes a head, a Thorax, and an abdomen. So wait, forget the body slams and the antenna locks and the leaping off the road. how do crickets actually wrestle in real life?

Well, basically we lock our mouth parts together and kick really hard with our hind legs. Sometimes it gets so intense, one cricket may even… Oh, wow. I sure hope that doesn’t happen today to one of you.

It won’t be me. And it definitely won’t be me. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Guys, guys, guys, stay calm. Aren’t there any safer activities you can do? Smarty Pants, let’s think of some other things crickets can do besides kick each other.

Go ahead, shout out some ideas. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh. Hearing a lot of Smarty Pants saying, jumping. Good call, Smarties. Crickets can jump very high and very far… for their size. That’s right, Trusty.

It’s kind of like our superpower. Why do you think they call me the Big Hopper? Good point. But just how far can a cricket jump? Smarty Pants, any ideas? Is it five inches? Ten inches? A foot? Try two feet.

Uh-huh, 24 inches. Which doesn’t sound like a lot a lot until you realize crickets are less than two inches long. Wow, that’s 12 times your size. That would be like a five-foot human jumping 60 feet or an entire bowling lane.

The farthest a human can jump is less than half that far with a long running start. A jumping is an all we’re good at. We’re also known for. What, Smarty Pants? What other things are crickets known for?

Here’s a hint. Well, that’s the human version. Here’s the cricket version. Crickets are known for their singing. Wait a second. All that chirping is singing? That’s right, trusty. We like to sing and dance and fight.

It’s kind of like West Side Story. Smarty Pants, have you ever heard crickets singing at night? Especially out in the country. It can get pretty loud. Pretty loud? I can barely sleep some nights. And it just goes on and on and on.

Why? Why must you keep me awake? I’m a reporter. I need my sleep. Actually, our singing has nothing to do with humans. Male crickets chirp, so female crickets can find us. Hey, look, someone’s coming.

Wyatt’s. Hi, I’m Trish. I couldn’t help hearing you chirping, so I jumped towards the sound as fast as I could. Hey, Thorax. Hey, Big Hopper. Hi, Trish. Sup? Hi, Trish. I’m the trusty narrator. Did you know it was these two crickets chirping?

No, but I knew it was a male cricket from my species. Female crickets can’t chirp. Ah, but isn’t there a quieter way for you to find each other? That would be nice. Not really. Some crickets, like mole crickets, live underground.

Other crickets spend a lot of the time hiding in grass or under leaves, so we don’t usually see each other. Singing is a great way to help us find each other. Well, you sure found me. I think she was, uh, talking about me.

Oh, yeah? Yeah. And we’re back with more Cricket Championship Wrestling Action. No, no, no wrestling. Let’s stick to singing. How do crickets sing? Believe it or not, it’s not with our voices. Wait, all that chirping isn’t coming from your mouth?

So then, how are you making that sound? Smarty Pants, do you know? Did you say they’re wings? If so, great job. Crickets are part of the animal order orthoptera. That name comes from the Greek words orthos, which means straight, and teron, which means wing.

Our straight wings help us make our special sound. And just like a human could be right or left-handed, a cricket could be right or left-winged. Each of our wings is a sharp edge called a scraper, and a long, bumpy vein called a file.

When a male cricket lifts its front wings and rubs the paper of one ring against the file of another wing, it makes a chirping sound. Katie Dids and Locusts also make noise this way, but you can tell when it’s a cricket, because we usually make our sounds after sunset.

I usually hear crickets in the summer. Do crickets like warmer weather best? Oh, yeah. Our ideal temperature is between 82 and 86 degrees Fahrenheit, or 27 to 31 degrees Celsius. I’m not gonna lie, I like the summer best too.

So when I hear crickets singing, it all kind of sounds the same. Does every cricket sing the same song? Nope, every type of cricket sings a different song. Did you know a tree cricket trips depend on the temperature?

I did not. The hotter the weather gets, the faster a tree cricket chirps. Some people even use the tree cricket chirps to know what temperature it is. Really? You can use a cricket to figure out the temperature?

We’ll learn how, right after this quick break. Parents, if you’ve ever experienced bedtime battles with the kids, I’m gonna let you into a little secret. I’m Abby, a mother of two, and I had these battles myself.

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According to my new wrestling cricket friends, it’s possible to tell the temperature by listening to a cricket. But how? What you do is you count the number of chirps you hear in 15 seconds, then add 37 to find the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

Whoa. That’s why the snowy tree cricket is nicknamed the Thermometer Cricket. Amazing. Besides wrestling, jumping, singing, and telling the temperature, what other things do crickets do? Like most defopterans, we have big appetites.

Oh, same goes for members of the Trustus Neritus family. Well, I thought that was kind of funny. Huh? No, we were just singing. Oh, good. So, uh, what do crickets like to eat? Pizza? Chicken nuggets?

Meatcake? Try leaves and small insects. Our sharp jaws help us. to our food whether it’s plants or other insects great more pizza for me of course while you eat smaller insects I’m sure there are bigger insects looking to eat you who do you have to watch out for the scariest animals to us are predators like birds snakes lizards mice and spiders luckily our black and green brown bodies help us blend in with us surroundings making it tougher for predators to see us plus we spend a lot of time underground during the day and then come out at night to find food I see and what about baby crickets female crickets like me lay eggs in the ground the eggs look like small yellow bananas they hatch in the spring and tiny baby crickets tunnel up to the surface Aww.

They eat leaves, but just like adult crickets, they also enjoy eating insects. A cricket’s sharp mouth parts means there’s no need for mushy baby food. Smarty pants, what are baby crickets called? Are they A, cricklets, B, buggies, or C, nymphs?

If you said C, nymphs, you’re right. What happens when a nymph starts to grow up? The nymph’s exoskeleton gets tight as it grows. Oh, kind of like when a human kid outgrows their clothes. Only a cricket can’t pass its exoskeleton down to a younger nymph, so it loses its small exoskeleton during a process called molting, or shedding skin.

Smarty pants, how many times do you think a nymph molts before it becomes an adult cricket? Is it one or two times, five or six times, or 10 or 11 times? If you said five or six times, great job. And then after molting for the last time, grown-up crickets get their new wings.

New wings? That’s right. Cricket nymphs don’t have wings. They have wing pads where their wings will go. Once they finish molting and become adults, the wing pads grow into wings. And then they can start to sing.

Before, I think Chet mentioned that crickets, like all insects, have six legs. That’s right. But here’s an interesting thing. Crickets have a body part on their legs that is usually found on a human’s head.

What do you think it is, Smarty Pants? Is it ears, a nose, or eyes? If you said ears, great job. Our ears are usually found under the knees of our front legs instead of our heads, the way a human’s ears are.

Instead, we have antennae on our head. Ah, yes, can’t forget your antennae. In fact, your antennae is on our head. look longer than your body. They need to be longer than our bodies. Our eyesight isn’t so great, so we rely on our antennae to help us see and feel our surroundings.

Whoa. Who needs good eyesight when you got giant sensors on your heads? OK, last question. What are some of the different kinds of crickets? Field crickets are the most common. Ground crickets usually live in the United States and Europe.

Tree crickets are the same size as field crickets, but they’re a different type of cricket. Male tree crickets chirp in groups, making high pitch noises. And house crickets are usually found in Europe.

Gotcha. See? Now, wasn’t talking better than wrestling? Yeah. I guess so. Hey, boys, who wants to hang out? Oh, and we’re back again, wrestling fans. A big shout out to Smarty Pants Ben in Los Angeles, California, who said, who smarted is great at making me smart.

That is truly the nicest thing you could ever say to us, Ben. Thanks for smarting with us, and yes, we will make an episode about fishing. This episode, Crickets, was written by singing Sarah Sweetik and voiced by Chris, Cricket Studio, Okawa, Sheffield Chirping Chastain, Adam Chetz Davis, and Jerry Colbert.

Technical direction and sound designed by Hopping Josh Hahn. Who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios. Our associate producer is Max Thorox Kamaski. The theme song is by Brian Sixleg Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis.

Who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colbert. This has been an Atomic Entertainment production.

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