Researchers found cannibalistic invasive camel crickets have spread throughout homes in the Eastern United States.
Camel crickets eat just about anything, including each other; they are also terrifying looking, North Carolina State University reported.
"The good news is that camel crickets don't bite or pose any kind of threat to humans," said Mary Jane Epps, a postdoctoral researcher at NC State and lead author of a paper about the research.
The scientists were inspired to conduct the study when one of the beasts was found in the home of an NC State researcher. The team took a look at their citizen science network, which is part of associate professor of biological sciences Rob Dunn's Your Wild Life lab, to make their findings.
The team asked the public if they had encountered the insects in their homes, and to send in any photographs or samples they could get.
The most common species reported by about 90 percent of the respondents was the greenhouse camel cricket (Diestrammena asynamora), which is native to Asia. It was first spotted in the U.S. in the 19th century, but was considered to be a rarity; the insect is now believed to be more common than native camel crickets east of the Mississippi.
"We don't know what kind of impact this species has on local ecosystems though it's possible that the greenhouse camel cricket could be driving out native camel cricket species in homes," Epps said.
The team also sampled the yards of 10 homes in Raleigh, North Carolina and found a high concentration of greenhouse camel crickets, particularly in the areas of the yard closest to the home.
"There appears to be a second Asian species, Diestrammena japanica, that hasn't been formally reported in the U.S. before, but seems to be showing up in homes in the Northeast," Epps says. "However, that species has only been identified based on photos. We'd love to get a physical specimen to determine whether it is D. japanica."
Despite the presence of the invasive species, the researchers urged the public not to panic.
"Because they are scavengers, camel crickets may actually provide an important service in our basements or garages, eating the dead stuff that accumulates there," says Dr. Holly Menninger, director of public science in the Your Wild Life lab at NC State and co-author of the paper.
Very little is known about these invasive crickets, but in the future the researchers plan to conduct more research in hopes of gaining more insight.
