OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Some Oklahomans are spotting mysterious dirt mounds in their yards.

The mounds are not very big, some only standing about 1.5 inches tall.

However, they can be annoying and unsightly.

“I spend a lot of time in the yard, I want it to look really nice. I get tired of their little hills everywhere,” said Tom Wolf, who started noticing tiny dirt mounds in his lawn a couple of weeks ago. “Probably 15-20 hills.”

They’re not just in Wolf’s yard. They’re in his neighbors’ yards up and down the street.

“They’re just everywhere,” said Wolf. “I thought they were ants.”

Kelly Marcum, with Marcum’s Nursery in OKC, said they’re actually mole crickets.

“It kind of looks like an outer space cricket,” said Marcum.

He said in June and July, mole crickets were busy making little baby nymphs that lived in dirt dwellings.

“They’ve hatched out as nymphs and their nymphs are kind of wanting to move away from the home, so they’re starting to be active again,” said Marcum.

Marcum said they’re not harmful to your grass, unless you have an infestation.

One way to tell if you’re dealing with mole crickets is to get a bucket, fill it with water, add some soap, and flush the mounds. In about 10 minutes, the cricket should come to the surface if they’re underground.

However, Marcum said that will not get rid of the mole cricket. Neither will rain, or spreading the dirt mound flat. They will just move back in.

The good news is there are treatments available. Nurseries carry product that contain bifenthrin that you can scatter in your yard. They also carry a treatment with imidacloprid, which Marcum said will last a little bit longer and works for a whole season.

The other good news is here in a couple of weeks, the mole crickets will go back to their homes underground for winter.