DENVER, Colo. — A University of Denver instructor who tells his students to listen closely to the night heard something he recognized, and it turned out to be the first known detection in Colorado of an invasive cricket from Asia.
“I heard the sound, and I just knew it was significant,” said Ted Floyd, an ornithology expert and instructor for DU’s Enrichment Program. He said he recorded the low-pitched chirp with his cellphone on Sept. 25 and then used a spectrogram and expert confirmation to identify the insect.
The species is the Japanese Burrowing Cricket. Native to Japan and other parts of Asia, the cricket has been established in parts of the eastern United States since the late 20th century and has been steadily expanding west and north, Floyd said.
His recording was posted to the nonprofit biodiversity mapping site iNaturalist and added to the global database after experts confirmed the identification.
Floyd followed his discovery with another one in Lafayette on Oct. 10, making his Denver-area sightings the western-most occurrences ever found. He predicted the insect could become a common nighttime sound in Colorado within the next couple of years.
Despite being an invasive species, the crickets appear to be mostly benign.
“They just sort of do their thing. They hang out in the soil. It doesn’t seem to be a big deal, really,” Floyd said, noting the species so far does not show the agricultural damage associated with other invasive insects such as the spotted lanternfly or Japanese beetles.
For Floyd, the discovery was also a reminder to slow down and spend time outdoors.
“Go out there instead of rushing back to your vehicle… just listen to the crickets for like 30 seconds,” he said. “Our discoveries can really contribute to understanding how the environment works.”
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