Crickets clutter campus life

It is a yearly tradition for the Commerce crickets to overrun both the city and the campus, disrupting some daily activities of students. Since the start of the semester, the increase in cricket activity is often seen as disturbing and distracting by many on campus. When dealing with activity both indoors and outdoors, the bugs continue to be a nuisance even after their deaths.

In late August the cricket population began to increase and become much more active as it does every year. The constant habitation has frequently annoyed students; however, it would seem their activity has been spreading indoors and increasing student discomfort.

"It's disturbing to walk down the streets and see them splattered all over the place and even more of them all over walls," freshman Smith Hall resident Robert Brown said.

Recently, the cricket population has been finding ways to take refuge within buildings to escape the winter cold, adding a further inconvenience to the flow of classes. Students have reported having crickets pop up in uncomfortable places, as if from out of nowhere.

"Seeing them at fast food places is disgusting, and my friends have had them in their own rooms on every floor," freshman Shoale Sharrock said.

The aftermaths of their appearances have been even more disturbing. A recent rainstorm forced many crickets to take shelter at the bottom of an elevator shaft in the Ferguson Social Science Building, crushing them all when the elevator reached the bottom. The resulting stench from their dead bodies was so intense that it not only spread throughout the area outside and around the building, but even forced certain classes inside of the building to cancel while the building was being aired out and deodorized.

The question on the minds of most students is, "how are so many crickets getting inside of the building?" Perhaps slipping through the main entrance of buildings is understandable on the bottom floor, but crickets have been seen making it all the way to the third floor of buildings before passing away.

For now, the migration question remains unanswered, and soon the foul odor that arrives with the insects will fade away like the crickets themselves as winter approaches.