Steven Ralfe, age 10, of Fresno, California, for his question:

Is the cricket a pest?

We can't help loving the frisky little cricket with his cheerful chirp. But, sad to say, he must be rated as a pest, at least in the garden. He is by nature a plant eater and when he gets a chance he helps himself to the plant food we grow for ourselves. A newly hatched cricket is a mini copy of his parents and while growing to his full size, he devours huge quantities of vegetation.

The ordinary field cricket chirps cheerfully through the night when he comes forth to dine on the farmer's vegetables. The mole cricket and the camel cricket live under moist rocks. Their favorite pastime is dining on rootlets. In many regions, they destroy seedlings and growing crops of peanuts and strawberries. The black Mormon cricket of the West devours any plants he can find, including whole fields of cereal grain. Yes, the cricket is a pest. But a good way to control him is to let the praying mantis loose in the garden. This huge insect devours the crickets that devour our vegetables