The mole cricket found in the Maltese islands is one of several species of mole cricket that can be found on all continents except in Antarctica.
They have large beady eyes and strong shovel-like forelegs which are well adapted to tunnel through the soil.
Mole crickets are not often seen because they are nocturnal and because they spend most of their lives underground.
They live in burrows in fields, lawns and golf courses. A mole cricket on the soil surface can disappear within a few seconds by digging down into the soil. The local species, which is known in Maltese as buħarrat, is also found in Sicily and mainland Italy. It grows to between 4 and 4.5 cm.
Mole crickets are often considered as pests. The local species is feared by farmers because it cuts the root attaching the potato tuber to the adult plant and because it destroys seedlings soon after they have been planted in the field by cutting off the roots.
Up to the mid-1940s the only thing a farmer could do to control mole crickets was to squash them whenever they were found. Experiments were carried out at the Government Farm to find an effective method to prevent it from destroying the young vegetable plants.
Experiments included applying naphthalene to the soil and inserting pipes around the small plants. The latter was found to be the most effective method.
The mole cricket is related to the other crickets. Thirteen crickets are found in the Maltese islands. These include the house cricket (werżieq tad-djar), the two-spotted field cricket (grillu) and the common ground cricket (werżieq tad-dlil). Crickets are known for the ability of males to make sound.
The sound is made by an organ which is a large vein running along the bottom of each wing which is serrated like a comb. Two wings are run against each other to make the sound.
The wings are erected and kept opened to amplify the sound. Each species has a distinctive sound and one can learn to tell the different species by the sound they make. In the past the two-spotted field cricket was kept in a cage as a pet.
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