They can also be found and dug out of manure heaps and damp places. Interestingly, they are often found along the edges of roadways, particularly sitting on or moving along a guardrail, post, curb or other structure. They appear to be sunning themselves, but most likely they accumulate at the roadside because they move out of the desert at night, run into the pavement and resist crossing the road. Jerusalem crickets burrow in soil using their large hard head and closed mandibles as a hoe to move dirt back and underneath them. They dig in moist, light soils, although they are also found in deep cracks in adobe soils.
Females make their nest six to ten inches beneath rocks and boards.
The chamber is at the end of the burrow and nearly at a right angle to it. The nesting chamber is lined with a paperlike material in which the whitish, oval, eighth-inch diameter eggs are laid. Because it is nocturnal and comes out of the ground at night to roam around, owls, including the endangered spotted owl, feed on it. Probably other nighttime predators such as coyotes, foxes, and badgers eat it as well. When kept in captivity, a Jerusalem cricket should live in an environment similar to its native habitat.