Ah, the joyful melodies of summer

I say you hire the cricket or crickets on a 40 hours a week basis. Give them the full benefits package but don't promise them any overtime.

Tell them their hours WILL BE from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. They will not be paid after 5:01 PM regardless of whether they did not finish their work. Let them play their music during this time.

They will not be paid anything after the fact. So there is no incentive to keep you awake at night if they don't get paid. It's the American dream!

To get paid for doing the thing they love!

Win win! They're fully employed! You get to sleep at night! You can sell the music on iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store. The US' unemployment rate goes down!

I'm sure they're a delicacy in some cultures. Think fried...or covered in chocolate...mmmmmmmm. Still not gonna kill one, though.

We have crickets in New Mexico? (I've only heard them in Washington, DC.)

Do they eat cockroaches?

This is Mr. Cricket!

Roger, you ole rat. I used to love the sound of crickets at night when I was a little kid up in the country. Send the bug to me. He'll have a good home and someone who appreciates singing insects.

Of course, sending it to me means that you'd have to catch him. Hah.

Another of life's little ironies.

Eeeyeah! Actually, not a peep out of him last night. Maybe he was overwhelmed by all the love. Maybe he met the love of his life and set up housekeeping somewhere else. Maybe he finally got laid.

Nothing cold blooded about it. Would have been white hot crime of passion.

Yes, they live in New Mexico. They thrive in Farmington.

I've no idea what they eat, but way too much of it, I'm sure.

In Florida we have tree frogs and they are loud! I’ve had one croaking outside my bedroom window for a week now. If I ever catch that sucker he’s a goner.

Can you tell where the sound comes from. I swear with crickets it's just impossible to locate.

Oh yeah, they like to hang on the window. They usually start croaking in the middle of the night and I’m too tired to get up and go outside and chase the little suckers away.

Yeah, that's right, you laugh it up big, you Northern Hemispherians.

<atchooo!>

Actually crickets and locusts, when grilled over a hot fore and salted and dusted a bit with chile and some kind of onion/garlic, makes a really great snack/ When I wporked i Africa I gagged at the thought of eating this , but when some of our drillers would cook em up that way over a fire, they get crsiped up and crunchy with chewey centers and they have a flavor very similar tp istachios to me.
I learned to savor the little buggers and you couldnt tell crickets from big katydids from locusts. Theyall tatse the same.

Some ate the big roaches (we calls em Pametto bugs) but I wouldnt touch them. Its sorta like the guy that first ate an oyster. That took some balls Ill bet

I read an article a few days ago about an ice-cream parlor that got shut down for selling Cicada ice-cream. It was a little confusing since whatever agency it was said it wasn't all that dangerous health-wise...just icky LOL.
http://www.npr.org/2011/06/08/137054817/missouri-shop-makes-cicada-ice-cream

NO!!! STOP!!! DO NOT TRY TO KILL THAT CRICKET!!!! That cricket is a vital part of a green lifestyle. Coddle that cricket, and you'll never have to buy a thermometer filled with toxic mercury again!!!!

Just use that Timex watch to count the number of chirps in 13 seconds, add 40, and you've got the temperature in degrees Fahrenheit.

That cricket is really a precision scientific instrument.

http://www.snopes.com/science/cricket.asp

Yeah. And while you're laying awake all night long you'll know exactly what time it is!!!

Waste of time. I've got two cats. You can tell the temperature by the length of a sleeping cat, and if there's one thing my guys are good at, it's sleeping.

Better yet, tell me how to catch it, and I'll perserve it for scientific use. Suuure I will.

Hmm, intersting, all the scientific research I've seen on the subject says that thickness is the relevant variable--the flatter the cat, the higher the temperature. Do we have a new paradigm struggling to break free here?

This is hardly new. Of course, you have to calibrate your own kitty.

People keep pets that eat crickets. They are sold at some pet food stores. Go and find a gawgeous goil cricket. Put her in some kinda mesh device so that her theramones can escape.

Let nature take its coures. Then swoop them both up in a net and move them far away. Let them live in buggy bliss.

BTW, the best way to tell the temperature is to turn on the news.