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..
May 8th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
I HATE THESE THINGS I found three in my sink and know therein the bathrooms uhhh there so gross
June 12th, 2010 at 8:12 pm
I used to be a cable TV installer and I would see them all the time. Most of the time it was because there was a lot of leaves around the base of the house that were not raked up or grass clippings. They seem to love loose, partially decomposed material. They may not be harmful to humans but they sure can destroy the vegatation. Never a problem before but this year they are eatting all my wifes flowers, the rhubarb and other veggies in our garden. My wife is freaking out. We will try the soapy water spray tonight and see how it goes. Thanks for the info.
June 22nd, 2010 at 12:23 am
I live in a town in southern MN and after we had rain for a week begining in June the earwigs are out of control. They’re eating up my garden, if I look in the grass at night with a flashlight – the ground is teaming with them – it’s sick – they’re also over all my plants. I sprayed them with insecticidal soap and they crawled about 1 foot, writhed and turned over… they looked dead, 5 minutes or so later they started moving and eventually crawled away just fine. My neighbors sprayed chemical pesticides and used granules but there’s a lot of dead birds now. So I’m doing the wet newspaper rolls and catfood cans of oil, I’m catching probably 800- 1500 per night but I’m starting to freak out cuz there’s just so many of them. Some of my plants are completely gone.
June 24th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
I am moving into a new apt and went to look at it today as they just installed new carpet and painted. There were 6 or 7 of those nasty things climbing on the walls! I am completely grossed out and scared that they will bite my 5 year old daughter. (as her room is the one I found the most of them in!) I’ve heard conflicting stories. Do they or do they not bite?
June 28th, 2010 at 3:44 am
hey people if anybody reading this is from eastern long island,suffolkj county area.i live in ronkonkoma estates,south shore,these earwig things have literally taken over my 2-1/2 car garage,the garage is detatched from the house and the frame is wood with vinly siding over it,,these suckers hide all over the door ways,i sprayed ant-roach killer,i have no roaches just these earwigs,they fall out of the wood walls in clumps,i was going to set off thre foggers cause i have a finished loft above the garage,i hAVE 2 MUSCLE CARS IN THE GARAGE,BUT THIS IS WHERE IM GOING,THESE GOD DAMM THINGS ARE EVERYWHERE,IN THE WOOD CRVICES,I MEAN I SPRAY AND ThEY COME OUT BY THE HUNDREDS,MY BUDDY AND I step on these things,i literally have to sweep them up in piles,i have insulation on my walls behind the wood to keep the garage warm in the winter so when i work on my cars ‘71 chevelle ss,’87 buick grand national,and i just put up an auto shelter and have a ‘87 monte carlo ss.but again how else do i get rid of tese god damm things,they are in clumps,when u spray the frame of a door way in the garage,i have 2 doors,and 2 roll up doors.even in the roll updoors,the wood crevices they fall out of when i spray,and when u lift up a bag of grass seed,for get it,and the bags are dry,and they are still there.under my platic garbage cans made by rubber maide,they are under them too.my water hose cabinet is plastic,open it up and they crawl out by the hunreds,NEED HELP ANY ADVICE FROM ANYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!,would be greatly appreciated.thanks one and all for reading this,we have to over come these brown little annoying bastards.their everywhere,now they are comming into my house,found them in the basement,its a ranch with vinyl siding on it.found a few in my master bedroom on the floor,i have no veggie gardens anywhere,i do have arborvitae trees about 6ft tall.but my front yard is kept immaculate and so is my rear yard i have an acre of property.like i said there were a few at first now its out of control.i just bought the powder stuff to mix with water,and a 2-5 gallon sprayer,with a 4ft wand on it,im going to spray each and every panel in the garage up and down stairs.im not a hypocondriac trust me on that,just like a bug free home and garage, please anyone with any helpful ideas i would be very,very,very grateful.i hate these earwigs more than yellow jackets and im highly allergic to yellow jackets.but im not gonna give up on my one and only hobby,building muscle cars,street/strip,this is my collection,my ‘73 camARO SS IS ON THE WAY NEXT, AS SOON AS I GET RID OF THESE GOD DAMM EARWIGS.I DIDN’T GROW UP ON LONG ISLAND ,I GREW UP IN QUEENS,FRESH MEADOWS.JAMAICA ESTATES,we didnt have these annoying bugs there.my neighbor out here, born, and raised. told me what they were.he said good luck getting rid of them,he was born and raised here.he’s seen them all his life. well take care all whohave this problem your’s truly john.
June 28th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
i am really scared of these things my cuz said if they do bite they dont let go so is this true and they can bite humans cant they?
July 1st, 2010 at 9:33 pm
We have these dumb bugs all over. I am from southern MN and we have had alot of rain. I have lived here for my whole life and have never seen these before. We plan to bomb our house and use the soap solution outside. Not a big fan of crawlers in the house. Good luck everyone.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:08 am
Hey Godiva Says:
I live in Southern MN and seem to have a problem too. Our basement is damp. We found out that when we moved in our house they didn’t let the foundation settle and we have cracks et in our basement. We have rocks all around our house. We use to have bushes but have since took most of them out. I just want a way to get rid of them without harming our little dog and fairly new baby. We have sprayed around the house but still see them in the basement and other places from time to time. I am pretty positive they are from outside but hate them in the house. HELP!!!!!
July 5th, 2010 at 10:22 pm
I live in Sioux Falls SD and have never seen these bugs before. What kills them is soap, ammonia and beer which is Jerry Bakers recipe. You can spray flowers, gardens and your lawn and it loves it. I have been using for my lawn now for many years and works well. Jerry says bugs hate it and will flee. Just buy attachment ortho dial n spray hose end sprayer put in 1 cup liquid mild dish soap like Ivory , 1/2 cup ammonia and 1 can or bottle beer (can be stale). Then attach sprayer to hose and spray everything. Also I did read that diatomaceous earth kills them and you can get at garden shops. Well got 2 inches of rain today and humidity around 80% so looks like we will be doing alot of spraying. Good luck everyone and pray for dryer weather.
July 6th, 2010 at 2:05 pm
hey guys and girls-the more i read about these earwigs,the more pissed off i get.im now going to go to lowes and get scotts summer guard fertilizer,pet friendly,people friendly and assault my property,i have an acre of property like i said before,this is my 2nd post.now im finding them in both sides of my basement.i have an 8,000 sqft house,4,000sqft main floor,4,000 sqft basement divided in 2 sections,just one complete floor.im going to saturate my yard with the fertilzer and water.but like i said spiders i hear hate the site of hedge apples.i belong to the monte carlo ss website,their the guys from all around the states,tell me,to get these hedge apples and the spiders will stay away.one problem, i have covered the entire east end of suffolk county deep east end,and no one has ever heard of these hedge apples.the spiders are the same as these earwigs they leave clumps of eggs hanging in their webbs. so u have to crush the whole webb with the clumps,cause these baby spiders that come out are microscopic.and to add to the situation,these earwigs from what i have reasd and some one please correct me if im wrong i have read that there are over 2100 species of these earwigs,so how do u know which one bites and which one doesn’t?just food for thought cause even though u don’t feel a spyder bite u. u will have a large lump on your arm with a black dot in the middle,and from what i understand if your allergic,it can put u on your ass in a hospital with the spyders poision,cause thats their protection from other bugs.but for now i just want to deal with the earwigs,cause they hide,the spiders don’t hide,they just drop tent and hang with their web amd thats it.again im going to ask,please if anybody DOES LIVE ON DEEP EAST END LONG ISLAND SUFFOLK COUNTY.please let me know if u have this earwig problem.cause it seems the entire world has them.thanks guys and girls,lets keep in touch,my e-mail is gnjohn94@aol.com anybody im asking on long island in suffolk county anywhere, as a matter of fact.let me know please how bad u have them i’d really,really ,appreciate it.john p.s. lets not give up on getting rid of these disgusting looking bugs.ewwwhhhh is about all i can think of when i see them.i just better not catch them in my muscle car collection.
July 15th, 2010 at 6:02 am
is it just me or are the earwig numbers out of control? i live in Southern MN, noticed there are others in my area seeing the same infestations as we are experiencing. From what I’ve learned of the earwig, they aren’t harmful to us and even can be helpful to farmers because of other insects they eat. I am currently watching a Earwig devour another Earwig, I was capturing them and putting them in a plastic see-through container this week. We didn’t know what they were yet, and I have been finding as many as 5-10 a day now. I injured one while trying to place it in the container, there were 4 other Earwigs in this small container at the time. Well, 10 minutes ago I checked on the bugs after finding this site to determine if these were indeed Earwigs, i assume the injured one was the Earwig now missing his HEAD! Lying 2 inches from his body that now appears to be a mid-consumption by another as i type this. So you can add “cannibals” to the list of habits and favorite things to do when captured.
Let me play conspiracy theorist here. Do you all remember the mosquito malaria outbreak in the US a few years back? What happened? Very little was covered in the media, i remember hearing updates about spraying being a potential answer for the problem. I can make a claim that mosquito numbers are way down in this area of southern MN the past couple of years. Maybe the sprays that were done (rather quietly I might add) have affected to eco-structure, allowing these insects to now thrive. Chemtrails. Out of site, out of mind. Now Earwigs will rule the world! Maybe I’m just unstable because an Earwig entered my brain via my ear last week and laid eggs in my mind!
July 19th, 2010 at 11:26 am
I live in Tennessee, and i’ve never ever seen these things before, I opened my bathroom cabinet to get something out an done fell on the floor, is there a bunch more where he came from? I’m too scared to look…I hate hate hateee bugs. :C!
July 19th, 2010 at 12:57 pm
I just saw one with wings!!!! Since when do they have wings. He was on a plant and I had my soap water ready and he flew away! Now not only do they walk (run) fast, they fly?????? Hate, Hate these bugs. Southern Mn.
July 27th, 2010 at 10:21 pm
I HATE THESE THINGS, there all over the place, my daughter found on in her bed and freaked out, This means war,LOL
August 2nd, 2010 at 12:59 am
i just found on in my room and, i came on this website to see what kind of bug this was and im glad to read that they are not harmful because i did not know what kind of bug it was and all your comments helped out alot!!!!!!!!!
August 9th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Myth: They don’t bite
Truth: They DO bite
I was trying to sleep and felt a tingle on my back. When I went to scratch the “itch” there was something really hard so I grabbed it and I got a small bite on my finger, freaked out, and chucked it against a wall. I got lucky. When they bite they usually bite hard but this one didn’t have enough time to latch onto me. This morning I caught one in a cup. I’m going to go see what soap does to it right now.
Yep, it looks like soap kills them. It was a very dramatic death. It was squirming around like it was in severe pain and then stopped moving. Maybe it suffocates them?
August 11th, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I really didn’t need to hear that story. We use a bug bomb in our house and sprayed around the foundation and “knock on wood” haven’t seen anymore in the house. Hope they die out in the winter.
August 14th, 2010 at 6:23 pm
Ok,
Manhattan NY here.
I live on the 11th floor of an all concrete building and have seen earwigs in the bedroom.
I have a 7 month old baby boy. This after noon I saw one on the duvet cover on the bed.
What to do,,,Where are these little pinchy bugs coming from way up here in my building?
Through the drains? The window?
I do not know if they bite nor do I want to find out.
I am now more concerned with falling asleep and not thinking about them…