Mole crickets have become the most destructive insect pest on turf and lawns in Gulf Coast states. Damage and replacement costs for turf and pastures are annually in the millions of dollars. Learn about the biology, ecology, and management of mole crickets with helpful illustrations and charts.

Pest Mole Crickets and Their Cousins

The insect order Orthoptera includes crickets, grasshoppers, and mole crickets. Within this order, grasshoppers are a separate subgroup from the field crickets and mole crickets. Crickets (such as the field cricket Gryllus spp.) are related to mole crickets but do not live in soil.

Two families of crickets have the common name of mole crickets. Pest mole crickets have digging front legs and live most of their lives in soil, similar to the mammalian mole. Pygmy mole crickets, much smaller and unrelated to pest mole crickets, are not associated with damage to turf or pasture grasses.

What people commonly know as mole crickets (family Gryllotalpidae) in North America are represented by ten species in three genera: Neocurtilla, Gryllotalpa, and Neoscapteriscus (formerly listed as Scapteriscus). Of these, Neoscapteriscus spp. is the common pest species in the southeastern United States. Gryllotalpa major and Neocurtilla hexadactyla are native and, on rare occasions, associated with damage to grass. Interestingly, in the early 2000s a campaign began in England to protect European native mole crickets (Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa) from extinction. Loss of grassland habitat is partially blamed for losses of this native species.

Brief History of Mole Crickets in the United States

Scapteriscus mole crickets were not known to occur in North America before the early 1900s. Three species in the genus Neoscapteriscus were introduced near the Georgia and Florida border from South America.

The short-winged mole cricket (N. abbreviatus) is the least known of these species. It is incapable of flight due to its shortened wings, and it basically has established only in Florida. Two additional species, the tawny mole cricket (Neoscapteriscus vicinus) and the southern mole cricket (Neoscapteriscus borellii, formerly N. acletus) spread and continue to spread across the Gulf Coast states and north along the Carolina coast. Neoscapteriscus also are reported from isolated locations in western states. In the southeastern United States, mole crickets are most likely tawny and southern mole crickets.

Description of Neocapteriscus Mole Crickets

Adult mole crickets are large (1 to 1 1/4”) with elongated bodies. The front pair of legs bear dactyls and the hearing organ called the tympanum, which is analogous to human ears (Figure 1). Neoscapteriscus mole crickets have two clawed dactyls on their forelegs that separate them from the native species, which have four claws. They have long antenna and strong, digging forelegs. Nymphs resemble adults but are smaller in size and lack fully grown wings.