Mole crickets are omnivorous pests that generally eat corn, grain seedlings, wheat seedlings, young leaves, melon and fruit peels, sorghum and so on. Rearing mole crickets can be fed boiled grain, wheat bran, peanut cake crumbs, soybean cake and so on. Gryllotalpa crickets generally derive their food from plants of several families such as Asteraceae, Quinoa and Cruciferae, feeding on plant leaves and eating roots and stems.

Gryllotalpa cristata is categorized into Oriental Gryllotalpa cristata, North China Gryllotalpa cristata, Taiwan Gryllotalpa cristata, and Common Gryllotalpa cristata. Gryllotalpa crickets are distributed all over China, and the damage is more serious in the south.

Gryllotalpa cristata is mainly distributed in the north. Taiwan mole crickets mostly occur in Taiwan, Guangdong, Guangxi. And common mole crickets are only distributed in Xinjiang.