Everyone knows that distinct ‘Chirp’ sound that a cricket makes. It’s a sound that means many things to many different people worldwide. To some, it means you just stepped foot in your favorite Bait & Tackle shop and are getting ready to hit the lake for a good day of fishing. To others, it means you just picked up a fresh batch of food for your pets at home. In many places, crickets serve as a tasty snack, cooked in many different ways with many different seasonings. Crickets are commonly made into flour for all kinds of cooking uses worldwide.

In the United States alone, there are 120 different species of Crickets. I want to draw the focus to just one of those species: The Banded Cricket.

The Banded Cricket is a cricket that I am very familiar with. For the last nine years, I have sold thousands of Banded crickets weekly at Forty Woods Bait & Tackle in Blue Springs, Missouri. For anyone unfamiliar with Blue Springs, it’s a diverse metropolitan suburb of Kansas City with many bodies of water, both public and private. Combine that with the many housing districts and residential neighborhoods in the surrounding metropolitan cities, and there lies a large demand for this particular insect.

Being a Bait & Tackle shop, the vast majority of our customer base is looking for all things fishing related. First-time customers, too much excitement, hear that ever so distinct ‘Chirp’ the second they walk in the door and are immediately met with vivid recollections of some unforgettable fishing trips with Dad or Grandpa.

Using crickets as live bait is a tradition passed down from generation to generation, and to this day remains one of the best baits for all Panfish species. Although panfish are the most commonly targeted group when using crickets for bait, you certainly aren’t limited to only catching panfish when casting out a cricket.

When Channel Catfish are finishing their spawn phase, using crickets for bait has been a well-kept secret for many years with the older generations. I’ve seen many a good stringer full of channel catfish brought in on crickets in late June/early July. An outlier but a story I will never forget; it started with Cricket and, in the most unlikely of circumstances, ended in a 108.5lb Catch. A state record at the time. It’s a story that took place well before my life but one that Forty Woods founder Mark Hill loved to tell.

On May 8^th, 1988, a customer named James Godfrey came in with one of the most remarkable catches you’ll ever hear of. James had woken up early and stopped by Forty Woods to buy some crickets. He was headed down the road to Lake Jacomo, hoping to fill his basket with Bluegill and Redear Sunfish. Never in James’ wildest dreams did he picture what would happen next. James hooked into a fish MUCH larger than anything he had ever hooked. He knew right away that this fish would make quick work of his 8lb test line if he didn’t play this just right; he knew his only option would be to loosen his drag and let this fish tire itself out. After carefully playing with this fish for well over an hour, he finally got it up out of the water and was able to lay eyes on his trophy catch. It was a 108.5lb Spoonbill. The largest anyone in Missouri had ever seen at the time. Caught out of our 970-acre county lake. A truly remarkable catch under any circumstances, but what James was able to do that day is how legends are made. The most unlikely catch, in the most unlikely place, using the most unlikely bait. If you had asked James any day after that catch what he was going to use for bait, he would have told you, “Crickets. You never know what you’re going to catch with them.”

Now at the other end of the spectrum, we have a smaller portion of our customer base who have little to no interest in fishing. They are coming in looking for different types of bugs to feed their pets at home, whether Bearded Dragons, Leopard Geckos, Tarantulas, or any omnivorous, carnivorous, or insectivorous pets of the like.

For many years we’ve sold all sorts of live insects that can double as fish bait and pet food. Small and Medium Mealworms, Waxworms, Red Worms, and of course, the most popular, the banded Cricket. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot of valuable information about these pets and their diets from many wonderful pet owners. The overwhelming majority are happy to have found a small business to support while simultaneously saving money and a trip to the big box stores.

One of our long-time regulars, Jeff, or as he goes by, “Cleetus,” is an advocate in all things reptiles. Owning everything from tiny Crested Geckos to giant Savanah Monitors, he goes through a large sum of banded crickets and mealworms of all sizes every week. When he first discovered Forty Woods, aside from the price, he was most impressed with the life span of our crickets compared to what you would expect from the crickets from the larger pet stores.

Jeff is just one of many pet owners that visit us regularly. We’ve seen many people walk in with their bearded dragons on their shoulders and seen countless pictures of all types of Lizards, Spiders, Snakes, and Turtles. We’ve even had a customer with his pet alligator walk through our door. All of them are the same in that they love their pets and want to get them the best food possible. That’s where we come in. We work hard to keep our crickets as healthy as possible by making sure their cage stays cleaned as well as giving them plenty of potatoes and lettuce for their sources of water and nutrients. This makes for happy crickets and even happier pets.

So, are crickets bait for fishing, or are they pet food? We can confidently tell you that the answer is both. Whether you’re planning a good day at the lake or just got a new household pet, Forty Woods has plenty of crickets to fulfill your needs.