Earwigs
Earwigs are dark brown insects, with pincers at the rear end and are about 1.5cm long. They are scarey looking especially if you see them in your house.
Male Euopean Earwig (left), Insect Photos.net, Female Earwig (right)-University of Minnesota Extension Service
Description
Usually they are not found in the house since they like moist dark areas during the day. Males have curved pincers while females are usually straight and shorter.
Eggs and Nymphs-John B Free
Lifecycle
They overwinter in the soil and in spring females lay eggs in chamber deep in organic materials. They are one bug that actually has maternal properties. She tends the eggs and after hatching she forages for food for the young nymphs. The process from egg to adult is approximately 70 days.
Earwig Eating Caterpillar-Discoverlife.org
Habitat
They can be found in the daytime in dark places. Usually they climb up fences or other objects above the ground and hide between board or in crevices. They are nocturnal and do most of their damage at night. Sometimes they also hide between leaves of the plants that they attact. They don’t fly and don’t travel long distances, however they ‘hitchhike’ on various objects like a laundry basket, discarded newspaper, bikes or anything else that has places where they can hide. The compost pile is also a place they hide. These bugs are also beneficial as they will eat other bugs, so if they are not harming your plants do nothing.
Damage on Cosmos-Royal Horticultural Society (left)-Earwig on Daisy (right)-Calvin St Andrews
Diet and Damage
They feed on young seedlings and many different flowers, especial dahlias. They make small holes in the leaves and they will literally consume blossoms in an evening if you have an overpopulation. They are attracted to light so use outdoor lights that are bug resistant (usually yellow colour). They also eat other insects dead or alive so they can also be beneficial. I don’t recommend killing them unless you have a very serious problem.
Control
1) Hand Pick
At night use a flashlight to find them and drop them in soapy water.
2) Soap Spray
Spray areas where they may be hiding in the day with insecticidal soap.
3) Newspaper
Dampen some newspaper, roll it up and leave in places at night near the plants they are attacking. In the morning you can discard the newspaper rolls with them in it. Drop in a fire pit, that’ll work.
4) Sticky Traps
Use sticky traps around affected plants……they will stick and die.
*They do NOT crawl in your ear while you are sleeping LOL
June 26th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
I have been finding these bugs in my bathroom. I kill about six or more a day. I don’t know how there getting in my apartment,but I’d like to know how to get ride of them. Will just spraying incectiside keep them away.
June 30th, 2006 at 7:57 pm
I just found them hiding in my rabbit’s cage. I had to scrape them out and squish them. But I don’t want to spray because of the rabbit. What kind of sticky trap can I use?
July 8th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
i have recently been kiling earwigs i’ve been killing about 10 a day they come all around the house example bathroom bedroom hallway livingroom kitchen but i’ve never had these before and i don’t know where they’re coming from because i’ve never expereanced this before. I would like to know how to get rid of them please.
July 11th, 2006 at 7:45 pm
Whenever I get my empty birdfeeders to refill them there are always earwigs in them. I am terrified of them so I always use gloves. I have heard that they bite hard. Does anyone know if this is true.
August 3rd, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Earwigs are not harmful to humans they don’t bite, I know this but i’m still afraid of them!
August 4th, 2006 at 9:53 am
I’ve seen black bugs ~ 1/2″ – 3/4″ long (tubular body), with pincers, 2 or 3 times this summer in my bathroom. I’ve never seen them anywhere before; I’m not sure if they’re earwigs or not, but they’re scary looking! This is also the first time I’ve had camel crickets in the basement, in 22 years living here. Pictures of earwigs I’ve seen are brown, not black. If they’re not earwigs, what else could they be? I live in northern New Jersey
August 6th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Thanks Patty. I am glad to hear that they do not bite, but I am still afraid of them to.
September 1st, 2006 at 9:10 pm
there in my bathroom & in the hall near it, would an exterminator get rid of them?
September 3rd, 2006 at 9:02 pm
Mine went away by themselves. I never see them anymore.
May 14th, 2007 at 11:46 pm
I notice that if I leave a wet rag in my sink I will get an earwig or two in my sink in the morning. Since I have stopped leaving the rags in my sink I don’t have anymore in my house. I wonder if they come through the drain at nigiht
June 10th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Earwigs were all over my new house last summer so this year, we started seeing them a couple weeks ago, my husband bought some insecticide and they die from it immediately. We have a small baby to protect and I hate these things!! They are everywhere! We sprayed around the perimeter of the house so hopefully that will keep them from getting in. I also wonder if they come up through the drains since they love water. I always find them in the bathroom! YUK!
June 10th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Earwigs were all over my new house last summer so this year, we started seeing them a couple weeks ago, my husband bought some insecticide and they die from it immediately. We have a small baby to protect and I hate these things!! They are everywhere! We sprayed around the perimeter of the house so hopefully that will keep them from getting in. I also wonder if they come up through the drains since they love water. I always find them in the bathroom! YUCK!
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
Earwigs are completely harmless.
To the woman that sprayed insecticide everywhere to “protect” her baby–you are hurting your baby with poison insecticide to eliminate an ugly but harmless bug.
And Stephen, your cousin did not die from an earwig. Something else must have happened (if its true he died, rather than you exaggerating)…
February 6th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
I have been trying to get rid of earwigs from my room. I rent a room at the end of a house. It’s an old room with cement outer walls and I spray it often, both outside and inside around the perimeter. And yet I still find earwigs! I don’t know how they get in. Thankfully, the spray seems to kill them once they’re inside and it’s not often that I have very lively ones. But I sure would like to know how to keep them out! I do not like bugs!
February 27th, 2009 at 12:30 am
This message is for kristydavid…before I would use an exterminator I’d work on getting rid of them myself. Reason being, an exterminator can attack other important bugs that are good for our crops, flowers etc…
It’s very easy to fill a bottle with soap and water…more soap than water….like 2/3 soap…1/3 water…spray the plants at night time and the soap will stand on the leaves thus making those dirty bugs to find a home with someone else…..also…..get rid of all mulch or stones…..just plant and use dirt….you should also check the requirements needed in Wayne County.
Good Luck my dearest,
Kate
March 30th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Hmm.. anybody who has a vegtable garden and excessive earwigs will beg to differ about the ‘harmless’ description of these bugs. They eat all kinds of veggies. They love cabbage and last year they set up hotels in every cabbage plant I grew. The only good thing about this is that with those cabbage hotels, they pretty much stayed clear of my tomatoes. In the next year or so I plant on a ‘chicken moat’ – a perimeter for chickens to patrol and eat all the wigs that try entering the garden. I haven’t found any organic approach that works well on these pests.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I don’t know where you all live, but in New Mexico, these buggers bite big time! I’ve got permanent scares on my legs from these suckers. I hate these things!
Yours truly.
May 5th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I hate these things! I swear they are everywhere in my bedroom. I have two windows in my room and it looks like that’s where they are coming from. We have lots of trees around our house. We sprayed lastnight but I don’t know if the first spray just brings them out or not. I think that I killed six this morning. They love to run and hide once you have spotted them. I am getting ready to take everything out of my room and clean it! I am going to try the newspaper tonight and see if that works. Since I heard that they come out at night to feed I will probably try the flashlight. Most bugs freak me out but these are way beyond freaking me out! They really scare me!
May 22nd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
These things are destroying my roses. They ate every single blossom. I hate the little freaks and I have been killing them for an hour or so today. Whoever says they aren’t harmful doesn’t know what they are talking about. Die, earwigs! Die!
June 1st, 2009 at 10:09 pm
Someone told me that Boric Acid will kill earwigs. Sprinkle it around the areas where you see the bugs. I find them most in my bathroom and kitchen where it is damp and in dark places. They like to hide under trash cans or if you have bags of grass seed, fertilizer, and so on in your garage or carport, they will be under every bag.
June 23rd, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I have read that one can use diatomaceous earth, or DE, to control earwigs. This would be much less harmful to other life forms, including humans. DE is composed of sharp-edged fossils that cut the insect when it crawls over it. Find it at an organic gardening site. Google “diatomaceous earth earwigs.”
July 3rd, 2009 at 9:21 am
Simply mix dish soap with warm water and spray…..they die and you don’t harm the environment.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:53 am
I found these ugly bugs ALL over my house. In my bathroom, in my laundry room, kitchen, living room, even the bedrooms. Since we live in South Dakota, and have high water tables- I just assumed it was a type of water bug, so I started drying out what I could around the house. It didnt work. What was 2 or 3 of those guys here and there, has quickly turned into a problem. I went out to my garden (new this year) and discovered, when I tilled up the ground- to plant this year, that I uncovered their little hideout, and since my garden is literatelly right behind the house, they just found a new home. I have no choice at this point but to bomb my house, but I really think they are helping in my garden. I have noticed less spiders, caterpillars and other bugs not eating my corn.
August 16th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
I always have some earwigs and they really don’t eat that much in small populations so I let them earn a living for themselves. This year however, HOLY MACKREL!!! They have started picking and carrying away whole Chinese cabbages! I am at war! I go out at night wearing a pith helmut!
October 14th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I hate the little buggers ; )….have been a nuisance in and baout our home foe 25 years. But, this year they’re even worse: we found one in the
level guage of our coffeemaker! Hot water didn’t get rid of it, nor did icey water. Next I guess will Clorox!
November 9th, 2009 at 11:38 am
We have a problem with the earwigs in our home, but lately i have found little dried up thorn like things in one of our beds. I saying this because up close the object looks like the tail end of an earwig. My question is, s it possible for the earwigs to lose thier tails. Or is it possible for them to detach obefore they die.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:49 pm
they molt up to four times as they’re maturing.. i hate these fuckers.. i want to kill them all.. they’ve destroyed everything i have tried to grow..