MetaChat - Cricket superstitions?

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09 July 2006

Cricket superstitions? I have a cricket in my house!!! I found him on Friday night, I call him Fred. Fred is silent during the day, but as soon as I get into bed at night, he starts chirpping very loudly which makes the cats think there is a mouse in the house, they are going nuts trying to find him.

I question if I should try and catch him and put him back outside. I know the superstition that crickets in the house bring good luck, but they take that luck with them when they leave. He'll die in the house with no food/water or if the cats find him. Will I be tempting the fates if I set Fred free? Do I leave him be or do I try to find him and set him loose outside possibly sending my luck away with him?

post by: getoffmylawn at: 08:00 | 17 comments

Apologies all. I didn't mean to post my whole story on the FP. I thought I hit the More Inside button.

posted by getoffmylawn 09 July | 08:01

I honestly have never heard, or fail to remember I've heard that superstition. Maybe it's because the noise crickets make penetrates my brain and makes me crazy, I don't know. But I say put Fred outside where he can be free. Give him a chance at life. Let him go.

posted by comments on the world as will 09 July | 09:12

If your cats were doing their job, they would immediately silence the cricket and put its corpse near their food bowl for your easy removal. In a contest between the cats and I, the cats always win. If I captured the insect, I'd release it outside, but I never get the chance.

posted by birdherder 09 July | 09:19

I hope cats catching house crickets doesn't lead to bad luck because my old cat used to love hunting and eating the crickes that would appear almost bi-weekly in our basement. This means that I would be out of luck for hundreds of crickets!

posted by LunaticFringe 09 July | 09:45

If your cats were doing their job...

Fred has been noticeably absent so far today. I wonder if the kitties indeed had a little midnight snack?

If/when I find him, I will set him free.

posted by getoffmylawn 09 July | 10:11

Cricket

A cricket on the hearth has been a sign of household luck for thousands of years. And the idea is prevalent in every corner of the world. Possibly the belief stems from prehistoric times, when a cricket's chirping provided a kind of companionship. The cricket has also served as a watchdog in China and otherAsian countries for generations. At any sign of danger, the chirping will stop. Almost every Native American tribe believed in the cricket as a bringer of luck, and they regarded imitating the sound a cricket makes as disrespectful. In the Far East as well as across Europe, it is considered very bad luck to kill a cricket, even by accident. Images of crickets appear on charms and amulets, particularly those intended to ward off the evil eye, in most ancient cultures of the Middle East and Europe. One of the best-known in America is the large weather vane on Boston's Fanuel Hall, a copper cricket fashioned by our Colonial forefathers to protect the building.

posted by Miko 09 July | 10:24

silly pagans.

*stomps cricket*

posted by quonsar 09 July | 10:35

Miko and her Google-fu...

posted by eekacat 09 July | 10:37

Miko and her Google-fu...

*blows puff of smoke from the Google-gun barrel*

posted by Miko 09 July | 10:51

Does that luck thing apply to camel crickets, which are the hideous mutant crickets that live in my house by the thousands? Because, if killing them is unlucky, well, that would explain a lot.

posted by mygothlaundry 09 July | 11:00

Maybe if you got a gecko, mgl? Then at least the blood wouldn't be on your own hands.

posted by Miko 09 July | 11:09

When I hears me a cricket at night inside, I can't sleeps.

So I hunts him down.

Then I kills the little bugger.

Superstition? It's a bug fer cryinoutloud!

posted by Doohickie 09 July | 11:39

Also, killing a spider makes it rain.

posted by Miko 09 July | 12:24

camel crickets, which are the hideous mutant crickets that live in my house by the thousands

I'm only a landshrimp, ma'am.

posted by tangerine 09 July | 16:38

Or you could adopt it and get it a pretty little box or cage for it to live in.

posted by madamjujujive 09 July | 16:38

Oh Jesus.

Crickets.

Every other year or so in Texas, there's this period in the summer where our entire town is devoured by crickets. They get in your walls, in your AC, and at night, you can't even see the road. Really. Millions of crickets streaming across the pavement.
Gross.
Kill the cricket before it adds to the infestation.

posted by bradth27 09 July | 23:03

For months, my parents had what they thought was a cricket in the house. Periodically, we'd hear these loud-pitched chirps, and my father swore he saw it. I spent quite a bit of time searching out this cricket myself. Turns out, the battery in the smoke alarm needed changing.

posted by Pips 10 July | 11:48

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