Animal Crossing: New Horizons players who are looking to fill out their Critterpedia have a surprisingly big job ahead of them. Some of the bugs that call your island home are hiding in plain sight, such as the mole cricket. Here’s how to chase it down and add it to your collection.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons – How to Catch a Mole Cricket
From November to May in the northern hemisphere, and from May to November in the southern, you may hear a cricket’s chirp as you’re running around your island. It’s easy to mistake this for simple ambient noise, particularly since the chirp doesn’t appear to have an actual source, so you may not realize that there’s a bug to catch here at all.
Mole crickets, as you might guess from the name, are actually hidden underground. You can’t simply chase them down and stick a net on their heads, as you can with some other bugs; it takes a little detective work to convince them to come out into the open. When you hear their chirp, stop and listen carefully, and you should be able to tell what direction the mole cricket’s chirp is coming from. It may be handy to switch to a pair of headphones at this point, or undock your Switch and hold it closer to your ear.
At this point, you’ll end up playing “Red Light, Green Light” with the mole cricket. Take a few steps in-game in every direction and listen for when the sound of its chirp gets louder. Once you’ve figured out the cricket’s general location, keep moving that way until the chirping hits its peak. At its loudest point, use your shovel to dig in the grass until you see the mole cricket jump out of the ground.
Now the chase is on. Pull out your net and try to capture the mole cricket before it can escape. They’re surprisingly evasive, and can get away clean via flight or reaching nearby bodies of water, but it shouldn’t take you more than a try or two to catch it. A captive mole cricket only sells for 500 Bells, so there isn’t a lot of point to capturing more than one, but it’s worth one more filled entry in your Critterpedia and one more exhibit at Blathers’s Museum.
Our own Critterpedias are dangerously full. Check out our game hub for more tips and guides on how to catch all the bugs and fish found throughout your island adventure, including:
Some Animal Crossing: New Horizons players will argue that the real benefit of capturing the mole cricket is to stop its incessant chirping. I would argue that if you don’t like the earthy sounds of nature, you shouldn’t have moved to an unsettled island in the first place. Pick a side by checking in with our official Twitter, @PrimaGames.
